ETA President moves to Pastures New

Dear Members, Players, Coaches and Referees,

It is my pleasure as President to congratulate all those who participated in the Touch World Cup 2011 that was held in Edinburgh. It was an outstanding performance by Team England resulting in three teams bringing home a gold, a silver and a bronze medal, these alongside the performances of the other five teams saw that overall England placed equal second in the World along side New Zealand. This is an amazing achievement and a testament to the commitment and months of preparation by everyone involved.

In particular, I would like to take this opportunity to say a formal thank you to all those who helped make the England World Cup squad the most successful ever. Thank you to Bridget McNamara, Kate Stanley and all the team managers for coordinating, the largest ever England World Cup squad, all 150 players and support staff. Thank you to the team of physio™s for their early starts and late finishes in getting the squad through the gruelling 5 days of competition. Thank you to our High Performance team, Mike Abromowitz and Claire McIntosh, for their incredible dedication in the build up to the tournament to create the professional environment that contributed to Team England™s success. A final heart felt thank you to each of the coaches of our eight teams, without whose hours of planning, patience, understanding and investment in their players we would not have achieved our overall position of number two in the World, thank you; Noel Forde, Mel Carson, Dave Woolley, Jon Lovell, Colin Hulett, Dante Germena, Taryn Pile, Carle Skein and Stan Barkhuysen.

The final reason for my letter is to tender my resignation as president of ETA. I have had an amazing two and half years in the role. I have been lucky enough to be supported by a fantastic committee of Directors, all of whom commit huge amounts of their own time in helping to develop the sport we all love. I hope you have all experienced the huge strides forward we have been making over the past few years and that you will each consider how else you might be able to help the sport  grow and continue its development.

I am off travelling in October and would like to ensure a full handover before I depart, hence I would like to commence the process of selecting my replacement immediately. If I could ask anyone that is interested in being nominated for President to please contact me before the 16th July 2011, we will then take all of these nominations and coordinate the election process.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped England Touch over the last few years; it has been a real pleasure!

Clare Gregor

President

England Touch Association