This digital edition is a compilation of the four ODRFC histories published to date and includes the addenda from the 2007 centenary history.

Download the PDF here.

The winners of the ODRFC Xmas draw have been announced and are as follows:

This year saw the Old Dunstonians make their 75th annual visit to Cornwall, the longest running continuous rugby tour to the Duchy.

Unfortunately for us, Old Merchant Taylors have been touring to Devon for over 100 years!! I'm not sure if theirs has been continuous though.

Download the PDF here.

I am pleased to announce that the Old Dunstonian Rugby Club Kit store is now open for business.

We made a decision a couple of months ago to change our Kit supplier to Akuma Rugby. Whilst we still have some Kooga items in the stock room all of our Kit will now be sold on-line and there will be a link shortly on the website to take you directly to the shop.

You will see that the shop has cut off dates for when you need to put your order in and the Kit will be delivered within 2 weeks of the cut off date. You have 2 options on delivery, you can have it delivered to you at home at a cost or pick it up from either the club or my home address (as long as its within a week of the delivery date)

For those of you who don't like to use the internet please let me have your order and send a cheque to me at 34 Highfield Road, Bromley, Kent, BR12JW and make your cheque payable to ODRFC. Orders will only go in once the cheque is received.

The website details are as follows

http://www.akumasports.com/olddunstonians

Username: olddunstonians
Password: dunstans

A local ladies rugby side took on a challenge of a different sort last weekend (Sunday 6th September) as they participated in the Adidas womens' 5K challenge in Hyde Park to raise funds for a local charity.

Players and supporters of the Old Dunstonian Ladies RFC, based in Beckenham, ran in the annual women's only event to raise money for the Pink Ribbon Foundation, an Orpington-based charity which is a grant making trust with a mission to fund projects and provide financial support to UK charities which relieve the needs of people who are suffering from, or who have been affected by breast cancer or who work to advance the understanding of breast cancer, its early detection and treatment.

Armed with a rugby ball and plenty of team spirit, the eleven runners all completed the challenge and have so far raised £575 for the Foundation.

Commenting on the team's achievement, OD Ladies team captain Helen Dempsey said: "it's a really proud moment for the players and supporters who have taken part in this challenge for an extremely worthwhile cause.

"Now we can concentrate on our next challenge - the start of the rugby season and our first match this Sunday!"

It's not too late to add your support to the OD Ladies fundraising appeal - go to www.mycharitypage.com/odladies to add your donation and support the work of the Pink Ribbon Foundation.

The Old Dunstonian Ladies are now in their fourth season. They will be competing in the National Challenge South East East 2 League in the 2009/10 season.

For more information please contact OD Ladies PR & Marketing Secretary Lisa Townshend e-mail webstablesx@aol.com, mob 07738493412

Second in the series of the Od Ladies newsletter. This issue features, amongst other things, a focus on OD Ladies coach Aaron Jarosz, a player focus on second row Tamzin Bunton, Memoirs of an OD Lady (by Trudi Salter) and some.....interesting pre-match rituals. All accompanied by the Newsletter regulars: Season Update, Extracts from Helen Jones' Diary and Tina's Kitchen.

Another fine publication girls. Well done.

Download the PDF here.

I am so pleased to be able to report back to you that Neil is showing a remarkable rate of recovery since I saw him last week. He is warm and comfortable, surrounded by Christmas decorations and our cards and messages of support. Neil is astounded by all of your messages.

His speech is back, though with the occasional slip ...nothing more. His legs are functional and his face is cheery. He still has a large deficit in his right arm, but that should return slowly. Thus, the only bad news is that does get so frustrated and hence the reason for the "no visitors" position he has taken up. Furthermore, Karen is doing a sterling job adjusting to her new role, another reason why the two of them need time alone together.

Just to show you how Neil is back on form, he told Karen to go out with the girls one night!

This has certainly lifted my spirit,
Cheers,
Russ

He is at home receiving therapy with regular visits back to the hospital. He still has no use of his right arm but his speech continues to improve. He will be working in the gym on his right side and at home with a speech therapist.

Further tests revealed that he had suffered from two strokes, originating from the internal carotid artery in the neck. One on the pitch the other after in A&E.

His wife thanks you all for the support and well wishes but is quite anxious to reiterate that he does not feel up to visitors just yet. Also Karen would like to thank you for the encouraging get well cards.

This is not confirmed but it may be a while before he is ready.

Russ Hackwood

He is improving all the time in bouts but at this early stage in his rehabilitation it is still too early to give a prognosis and recovery time. He can walk and talk slowly but he has a deficit in his right arm.

His wife, Karen and son, James (who is very ill at the moment with flu) would wish that Neil is to have no visitors until further notice. The reason for this is that not only is he very agitated and frustrated, he must have absolute rest to reduce his blood pressure and be able to concentrate on his recovery with his therapists. I hope you will respect the wishes of his family and I am quite happy to relay any messages and sentiments as I have done already. Cards are most welcome if you would like to send them via myself.

This is the first in a series of OD Ladies Newsletters. It will come out 3 times a year with the next one due for February 1st and the third at the end of the season.

The newsletter will contain a number of regular articles submitted and produced by various members of the Ladies team, including Player Profile, Ask Dr. Phillis, Tina's Kitchen, an update on the team's performance throughout the season and Social Events.

Click here or on the image to download the PDF.

The Pink Elephant Ball 2008 is a huge success. Even without the bonus of a World cup semi-final to assist in the entertainment, the general consensus was that the evening was somehow an all-round improvement on last year's event. Feedback from just about everybody was positive and the club also managed to raise over £2500 for Ollie Coling, son of the late Andrew Coling, who tragically passed away late last year following a motorcylce accident. This is the first fund raising event the club has organised for Olly and I'm sure all of you will join me in appreciating and encouraging all of those involved.

What follows is a text version of the speech given by Matt Salter of Bristol RFC during the evening.

Well said Matt.

The U17s lost 24 - 25  to Maidstone in the opening round of the Kent League competition.

It was beauty v beast as OD’s ran in three ties, two by Ashley Baxter and one from Josh Smith  but were downed by the Maidstone maul ( no collapsing at this level!)

A truly makeshift front and second row shored up the scrum and competed at the ruck, but were cleaned out in lineout and maul.

We’ll be back in the league against local rivals Beckenham at Beckenham on Sunday 12th Octber k.o. 11:00. With our pack nursed back to full strength we might just run them close!

London Irish were downed 28-10 last Sunday at West Wickham.

The subsequent BBQ was enjoyed by players and parents from both clubs.

We entertain Maidstone U17 this Sunday k.o. 12  in the first round of the Kent League. Maidstone are one of the top seeded clubs at this level.

A much needed addition to the Old Dunstonian website has finally been installed. Apologies for the time taken to put this in place, but after a day that yielded a rare bout of productivity, I have manged to add in a section to the website that is open to your undoubtedly informative articles and musings.

This section is for you, the club members and associates, to make the rest of the club aware of any information regarding the Old Dunstonians or its members which is deemed to be important or necessary. Although I will try to keep things as professional and orderly as possible, I may not be held responsible should anything of an unruly nature slip through my somewhat ragged net. By this I am referring to in-jokes, particularly gruesome tour photos, or that picture I have of what JP and Clappy get up to when our backs are turned.....

Please make use of this section. It has been introduced to allow you to express a bit more of a personal perspective of life at the club, and to bring us all that little bit closer together. And that can only help the club.

So if you would like any information, notices, short stories, requests for accomodation, requests for employment, requests for employees, or you just want to rant about what you would like to see happen at the club please feel free to email me at xavier.wh@hotmail.co.uk and I will post it up as soon as I get a moment to do so. Unfortunately I cannot make it so comments can be posted straight onto the website as I do not currently have the time to implement a fully interactive forum, nor would I have the time to moderate it and I'm sure many of you do that through Facebook anyway. This section is purely for articles and news items that you wish to be read by your friends, team-mates and club members.

Enjoy, and welcome to season 2008/09.