The Chargers’ focus has now well and truly turned back to preparing for the 2012 season and a first crack at the Bingham Cup tournament in June.

2012 will be a milestone year for the Chargers: The pre-season training squad is as large as it’s ever been, and the boys are looking as ready as ever for some hard-hitting football.

The club now has a full 25-man squad registered for the Bingham Cup in June, with a support staff including our coach, team manager, physio support and a handful of partners and supporters.

It speaks volumes about the tremendous support we’ve received from the Melbourne LGBT community that we’re set to take the second-largest contingent to the tournament outside the top eight clubs – many of whom have been operating for 8 or more years. Over the next four months we’ll be doing everything to ensure that we do justice to that support on the pitch in Manchester

Go Chargers!

Sam

Sponsor Update

The club has some exciting news this month on the sponsor front. Hampstead Dental has agreed to come on board as the club’s jersey sponsor for 2012. The Hampstead Dental logo will be front-and-centre on the Chargers Jersey we’ll be unveiling in the next few months.

We’re also thrilled to welcome Forty Winks’ Fitzroy, South Wharf and Prahran stores as sponsors for 2012. Those at Midsumma Carnival would have seen our display promoting the theme for Beer Bust IV: In Bed with a Charger. We’ll be in touch soon with some exclusive offers from Forty Winks for Chargers supporters.

Hampstead and Forty Winks join VAC/GMHC, Laird Hotel, Sircuit, MCV and Joy94.9 as our official supporters for 2012.

Some New Faces on the Coaching Team
I’m also thrilled to be able to introduce our coaching team for 2012:

Neil Hay has a wealth of coaching experience, previously serving Barnes RFC in London as their Head Coach, and more recently at Melbourne Rugby Club as Head Coach (Colts) as well as a variety of administrative and leadership positions at both clubs.

Hamish Bertram has a long history of involvement in Victorian Rugby, having played for many years with the Moorabbin Rams, also serving on their committee for several years. Since retiring as a player, Hamish has built a successful career as a referee.

Neil and Hamish will be supported by our Team Manager and Bingham Cup Tour Manager, Sean Knight.

Neil, Hamish and Sean are already making a huge contribution to the new-look Chargers, and we’re really fortunate to have them involved with the club.

Happening in February and March

Beer Bust IV: In Bed with a Charger
The next Beer Bust is set for Saturday, February 11 at Sircuit: The fun starts at 5pm and $8 gets you free pool, cheap beer and boat races… as well as the opportunity to have your photo taken – in bed with your favouriteCharger! The event as usual will be hosted by our very own Bumpa Love. More details and RSVP @ Facebook

Bingham Cup – 1-3 June, 2012
The Chargers are well progressed in our plans to travel to Manchester for the Bingham Cup. If you are interested in travelling with us as a player or supporter, please let Sean know at sean@melbournechargers.org

Saturday February 11 – Chargers Beer Bust IV – In Bed with a Charger @ Sircuit from 5pm
Saturday February 18 – Bear Chest @ Sircuit from 9:30pm
Sunday February 19 – Sunday Social @ Laird Hotel from 5:30pm
Sunday March 18 – Sunday Social @ Laird Hotel from 5:30pm

Melbourne’s own gay and inclusive Rugby Union team takes on Surge Water Polo in a pub Olympics event which includes such diverse events as arm-wrestling, a press-up competition, pie-eating, and culminates in the final answer to the question of the male physique – “the swimmer or the footballer?”, in the Best Butt competition.

The fun starts from 9pm at Laird Hotel, Gipps St Abbotsford. Entry to the event is $10 and will help get the Chargers to Manchester to compete in the Bingham Cup in June, and helps the Surge raise money to represent Melbourne at IGLA in Reykjavik.

Master of Ceremonies Richard Taki will be ensuring fair play and keeping the competition clean… mostly.

RSVP on Faceboook   |   The Laird Hotel

Tuesday and Thursday evenings, 6.30pm at Fawkner Park. You’ll find us at the Rugby pitches on Commercial Road, directly across from the Alfred Hospital.

Welcome to our Update for November

October is normally a quiet month for Rugby, but this year was different with the World Cup being played across the ditch in New Zealand. Australia of course not getting the result we wanted, but the All Blacks were deserving winners and no one would deny Richie McCaw the honour of hoisting the Webb Ellis trophy aloft.

Nor have the Chargers gone to sleep. October saw us take the month off training to let the injuries heal, but we were still out-and-about with the Sunday Social / Rugby madness at the Laird for the RWC semi-final; Powerman at Sircuit, and finally the Bear Chest comp, raffling off a huge prize from Titanmen and Manbound, again at Sircuit.

Pre-season training and Rugby 101

The Chargers return to training this month with pre-season fitness at Albert Park on Saturday mornings. We’re also holding Rugby 101 on the 19^th of November. We’re looking for new players irrespective of previous Rugby experience. Rugby 101 is the best opportunity to try the sport out if you’ve been thinking about giving it a go, this is it. We’ll be running a few drills to introduce the basic skills of the game, a game of touch rugby and then finish with a BBQ and a beer or two.

More fundraising…

There’s a fair bit of fundraising stuff coming up too as we get closer to the Bingham Cup…  another Beer Bust on the 19^th and a new event called Surf & Turf which will pit us against the Surge Water Polo team in a kind of “Pub Olympics” on 3 December at Laird Hotel. More on that in the weeks to come.

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day is coming up on December 1. The Chargers are proud to have partnered with VAC/GMHC and will be doing our bit to raise money and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS. If you can help out on the day, contact Michael Dalton at fundraising@vicaids.asn.au  or on 9865 6744.

Bingham Cup – 1-3 June, 2012

The Chargers are starting to put plans together to travel to Manchester for the Bingham Cup. If you are interested in travelling with us as a player or supporter, please let let us know at info@melbournechargers.org

Cheers,

Sam

Happening in November and December

Saturday 5 November – Fitness training at Albert Park hockey pitches starting 11am

Sunday 6 November – Melbourne Chargers AGM, location and time TBA. Want to become involved Melbourne’s only gay-identifying Rugby team? Become a member!

Saturday 19 November –

Rugby 101 at Albert Park from 11am. More info and registrations at www.melbournechargers.org/rugby101

Chargers Beer Bust from 5pm @ Sircuit

Sunday 20 November – Sunday Social at Laird Hotel from 5:30pm. Beers, blokes and a BBQ. (Medium-to-high chance of firemen too…)

Thursday 1 December – World AIDS Day

Saturday 3 December – Surf & Turf at Laird Hotel, raising funds for the Road to Bingham Cup and Melbourne Surge’s IGLA2012 campaign.

Laird Hotel – This Sunday – 16th October

BBQ from 5pm (Gold coin donation)

Wallabies vs All Blacks on the big screen from 7pm