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Welcome to the Supermarine Rugby website
If you are a regular visitor then come straight in, but if this is your first visit we'd like to take the opportunity to give you a brief insight into the history of the club and our hopes and plans for the future.
Now the question we are regularly asked : "Why are you called Supermarine ??"
The simple answer takes us back to the early 1940's when production of the famous Supermarine Spitfire aircraft was moved to a factory at South Marston near Swindon to compliment the factories in Castle Bromwich and Southampton.
We are still proud of our links with such an important icon of 20th century history and even today in the main bar you can see a 20 foot mural of a Mk XIVD Spitfire emerging from the clouds.
THE PAST
Founded in1958 as a works team from the Vickers Armstrong factory, the club struggled for many years to gain recognition within the company sports and social management. Playing under the company name of "Vickers" the initial lack of our own pitch meant that all matches had to be played away - until we finally found some wasteland on a municipal park that was basically no good for any other sport !! Realising that we were not going to go away, we were eventually given permission by the company to create our own pitch on the Vickers airfield - but even then the posts had to be taken down after each game so as not to attract birds, which could have been a risk to aircraft using the runway. We also acquired a small clubhouse in a corner of the site and were finally able to repay the hospitality of the many clubs we played against.
However times change and in the name of progress the pitches (and, by then, the much-loved clubhouse) were sold off and have now become the site for the Honda manufacturing plant - with the runways finding a new use as a test track and storage for cars made there. Once again we were forced to became nomadic, until finally settling at our present site - which is situated in South Marston just over a mile outside Swindon and only a few fields away from where we started.
Following the closure of the Vickers Armstrong factory a few years later we changed our name to the present "Supermarine" to recognise both our old links with the company and our future as an independent club. The club logo reflects this history as it comprises the Crown & Ostrich Feathers from Vickers Armstrong, the date of the clubs foundation and a 4-bladed Airscrew from a late-model Spitfire (technically it's not called a 'propeller' as they're on ships)
THE PRESENT
The club moved to its present location in 1980 and the current playing facilities include 4 Senior Rugby Pitches, separate Mini & Junior playing areas, floodlit grass playing & training areas and a floodlit hard-surface training area. Other sports played at Supermaine have use of 3 full size Football pitches, a Bowling green and an Archery range.
The social club has the "Bob Little" Players Bar, named after our founder member, the "Spitfire" Bar (plus attached Diner) and the "Flight Deck" Function Room - which can cater for weddings & functions of up to 450 people.
The Senior Section fields 2 teams every Saturday, with our 1st XV playing in Dorset & Wilts 1 North League during 2007/08 and the 2nd XV competing in Dorset & Wilts 3 North League. Building on our progress over the last few years a 3rd XV will occasionally be taking the field this season, which will allow the younger players emerging from our Junior section to initially experience 'senior' rugby & develop their abilities away from the competitive nature of league & cup games.
Throughout the season a series of Veteran's fixtures also allows our slightly older members to continue extending their playing career by playing at a more sedate pace.
Started over twenty years ago with just a handful of children, our Youth Section is now widely considered to be one of the best in the county.
Every Sunday morning a large number of qualified and dedicated coaches spend their time with young players from U7 to U16 and many of the current crop of senior players 'learned their trade' by playing at our Mini, Midi & Junior levels. We always emphasise the fun side of this great game of rugby and the sheer enjoyment & enthusiasm that can be seen in the youngsters is reflected in comments from our own, and visiting, parents who see us a great 'family' club. The skills side of player development obviously isn't overlooked and over the years we have produced large numbers who have played representative rugby at County level and (so far) one who has advanced to play for England Schools. We have even had one of our Mini sides participate in (and win) a curtain raiser for an International at Twickenham and one of our Junio sides participate in (and win) the NAWIRA Tournament in Florida.
Due to the extent of our facilities we have also held many Mini-Midi rugby festivals over the years, sometimes with over 1000 boys and girls taking part on the day, and this tradition will continue in October when we will be hosting both a Mini/Midi festivale and a Junior Festival with clubs travelling from a wide area to enter the competition.
We are also home to the premier Ladies team in the area, which was started over 15 years ago and ranks in the top twenty of the country. In 2007/08 we will again be playing in South West 1 Division with the team continuing to go from strength to strength. In recent years we have seen many players progress to County and Regional levels and to date Supermarine Ladies have produced captains of England Students and England Universities, players for England 'A', Emerging England, Wales 'A' and now we have our first full international who represented Scotland from 2003 through to the 2007 World Cup.
Supermarine RFC is also a well established venue for hosting Coaching & Refereeing courses plus running Regional & Representative matches due to both the scope and standard of our facilities - as well as our acknowledged hospitality. In the last few seasons have hosted County Cup Finals, Wiltshire and Dorset & Wilts games at all age groups up to U20 level and earlier this year hosted our first County Championship match with the 'Twin Counties' taking on Buckinghamshire.
Representative games by sides such as British Fire Service are regularly held and recently we have hosted both England U18 and England Deaf sides as preparation for their series of Intenational matches. Supermarine has been used for the 2006 Corporate Games, as a 'neutral' venue for Ladies Premier One and Daily Mail U18 Challenge matches plus numerous touring sides - the most recent being a South African U12 side. The feedback we receive from theseevents is always positive and, as the word spreads on what we can offer, we forsee that we will become an even more popular venue in future.
THE FUTURE
The belief at Supermarine is that the future of sport at all levels must start in the formative years and it is with this philosophy that we are actively promoting both tag and mini rugby throughout the area. By offering our coaches & helpers to schools the awareness of the teachers and children is increased, and we hope that this will encorage them to take up the game of Rugby Union. Our intention is that we will establish one of the largest and most successful Mini and Junior sections in the South West.
Obviously youngsters need goals to aim for and we intend to provide such targets through playing a good standard of rugby, whether it is by playing at mini level against a 'name' side such as Bath, or progressing through to play in the 1st XV. The 1st XV is the flagship side of our club and we aim to increase its status year-on-year by gaining regular promotion through the ranks of the RFU league system.
The facilities we have here at South Marston are already acknowledged as being the best available over a very large area and, as we improve them, we see no reason why we cannot play host to many of the 'name' clubs of Rugby Union.
It will take many years of hard work and a lot of investment but we want Supermarine to become one of the best clubs in the South West Divsions and would hope to see our club climb into the National Leagues.
One of the first steps towards this goal is the launch of a new initiative where we will be working with some local schools & colleges on a Rugby Acadamy basis to offer dedicated coaching sessions at the school/college and at Supermarine. One of the local colleges already runs a successful Football Acadamy at Supermarine and we feel that duplicating this system for Rugby will benefit the players as they will receive more consistent coaching at a higher standard and have the opportunity to play competitive games.
The Ladies are also looking ahead, declaring that their aspiration is to join the likes of Wasps and Richmond in Premiership One and are steadily working towards that goal. We also expect that progression in our standards will result in even more of our players gaining international representation. One step on this road will be the establishment of a Junior Ladies Section to allow girls to play from 12 (when they can no longer play mixed rugby) until they are eligible to join the adult side at 17.
Away from the playing side the intention is to enhance the Supermarine facilities to a standard that will be the envy of all clubs outside the National League.
Our 'prime' pitch is both fully railed-off and floodlit to Level 2 standards. We have also recently upgraded our training facilities by installing floodlights to cover a full pitch and will be looking to install more training lights on a second pitch. Our next tasks will then be to look at converting the hard-surface training area into an all-weather pitch, build/equip a dedicated gym, build an electonic scoreboard, create a dedicated physiotherapy/treatment room, etc............After that we'll think of a new list of improvements to work on !!!.
However, the biggest change for us at Supermarine is that in the Summer of 2004 we finally managed to acquire the freehold of the site. This means that we now control our own destiny and can look forward with confidence to a better and brighter future. Over the last few years we have seen the results of our hard work and the improvements in the club are continuing - almost on a weekly basis. Visiting teams have always been impressed by the facilities but if someone hasn't been to Supermarine for a year or so we know that they'll be stunned by what's already happened and then amazed at what's being planned.
The club celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2008 and is still going from strength to strength. We can look back at the long and winding path that has brought us to this point. We've had some good times and some tough times and even a couple of false dawns but we now have everything in place to be confident of a bright future.
Supermarine Rugby has been a sleeping giant for too long but is now beginning to stir and in a few years time we won't be hearing that question about our name any more as we will be known far and wide.
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