From the beginning of September the Junior Section have been back in action at Avenue St and beyond. This is my first season as Junior Chairman and it's certainly been busy. Over the summer I've been involved in the finishing parts of an organisational re-structure of the club with the main executive committee but I certainly noticed the upturn in activity once everyone was back refreshed from their summer break. Every year we add a new group of youngster at under 6 and under 7s and every year we attract new coaches to commit to providing training, guidance, mentoring and athletic fun for Bolton's youngsters. This continuous process is key to the continuing success of the Junior Section in combination with the recruitment of new players at all ages.

This September we ran our most successful ever Junior Open day which attracted over 30 new players and was attended by former England International Lewis 'Mad Dog' Moody. His name on the Open Day flyer was a great draw but he didn't disappoint. He joined with the training for every age group and even managed to generate a few beads of sweat on his forehead. He was expertly chaperoned by our Club Chairman, Mark 'where's the camera' Brocklehurst and the day was seamlessly run by our stalwart organisers Eraina and Calista. The club is founded upon volunteering but these ladies fall into the 'above and beyond' category.

Whilst I am in the mood for distributing praise, Les Towler and Duncan Trench must be mentioned as the respective elder statesman holding the respective offices of Club Captain and Treasurer. Without their contribution ensuring the machinery behind the scenes all works, we wouldn't have a club. It is heartening to see closer links between the Junior and Senior sections which is now bearing fruit. Our senior players are providing technical guidance to the junior teams and this is manifesting in healthy wins against some of the 'big names' in local league rugby. Our Junior players are reciprocating with ball boy activity at senior home games which gives them a great insight to the senior set up.

I predict that Bolton RUFC will soon acquire 'big name' status if it doesn't already. Its clear to see from the weekly match reports that we have true strength in depth. Our players are being picked for County honours and some of our Colts players are being invited to play for the senior teams which is always a worry for their mothers but I understand they more than hold their own. In fact last year my firm sponsored a match where I named a colts player, Jack Robinson, as player of the match in a first team game.

My ambition for the club is to enhance our technical coaching capability at all levels of the Junior Section and I have proposed the new post of Director of Rugby to ensure we spread best technical coaching practice amongst the teams as effectively as possible. I speak as a coach who knows his limits and is keen to maximise what we have at the club. Having read the training course for Director of Rugby on the RFU website I felt my 'vision' was duly vindicated!

A great start and plenty of promise.