Crawshays v Wales
As we all know, The Crawshay’s Rugby Club was formed in 1922 when Captain Geoffrey Crawshay took his first team to play against Devonport Services at the invitation of the Engineer Commander S.F. Cooper. Since that fixture the Crawshay’s Rugby Club have become one of the most famous and prestigious invitational teams in the World and are undoubtedly Wales’s greatest invitational rugby team.
Rose Crawshay, although a few generations before Captain Geoffrey in the Crawshay family dynasty, was equally philanthropic, one of the UK’s leading suffragists and is listed in Wales’s greatest 100 women of all time. The fixture will be a fitting tribute to an outstanding individual and we have selected a team of equally outstanding individuals from which we are aiming to beat Wales.
The fixture will also mark the first time in our close to 100 year history that we have ever played a Tier 1 rugby nation’s national team. To achieve this with our first ever women’s fixture has taken 18 months of lobbying and more recently planning and the Crawshay’s Committee have to be commended for their hard and persistent work to achieve this.
Bridgetime Transport Ltd, who will be commissioning the trophy and will be front of the shirt sponsors, are a UK and International Haulier and Forwarding Agent. As a logistics service provider, Bridgetime Transport have been operating in the UK for the past 12 years and have built up an enviable customer portfolio of Blue Chip Companies.
Managing Director of Bridgetime Transport, Robbie Evans, commented on the fixture ‘as soon as we heard about this unique fixture we instantly wanted to be involved and it will be an honour to commission a trophy for the game which will undoubtedly bring an added edge to the fixture. We’ve previously sponsored various elements of the Crawshay’s rugby and social programme and we’re extremely excited to see the The Crawshays play against Wales in this historic fixture.’
Samurai Sportswear, were the match sponsor for last autumn’s fixture between The Crawshays and Hong Kong at Neath RFC and will once again sponsor The Crawshays v Wales fixture. Samurai created a unique match kit for the Hong Kong fixture which was extremely well received by the players and our membership and they have created another bespoke match kit for the Wales fixture (Details of the kit to be released shortly.)
Samurai Global Sales Director, Mike Pells, commented ‘ Samurai are proud to continue our relationship with Crawshay’s and get involved in such a historic event. Samurai’s ability to design and manufacture truly bespoke women’s fit match wear and leisure wear will ensure the team have a design made exactly to their requirements, we wish Crawshay’s the best of luck on the day’.
The fixture is also being sponsored by current Crawshay’s sponsors CP Hire and new sponsors, The Heart of Wales 7s.
Will Thomas, Crawshay’s General Manager, commented ‘We are extremely grateful to all our match sponsors as all of the sponsorship received goes into delivering this historic fixture and to help put together a short programme that puts us into the best possible shape to beat Wales. Gone are the days where you can just rock up on the day and expect to compete with a Tier 1 rugby nation, so we will be squeezing as much preparation into a small amount of time. We are in the last phase of confirming the squad but we’ve selected players from throughout the UK so as to be as strong as possible and will be basing our preparation camp in Abergavenny and Ebbw Vale.’
Thomas further explained the thinking behind the Rose Crawshay Challenge Trophy, ‘I’ve been researching the history of the Club and also the Crawshay family dynasty in general with a view to the Club reconnecting to our history a little bit better than we have been doing. Rose Crawshay came up in that research and was the wife of Robert Thompson Crawshay, the last of the Merthyr Tydfil Ironmasters. They both lived at the magnificent Cyfarthfa Castle, which has 15 towers and 72 rooms. When I delved a bit further and found out about Rose’s philanthropic activities it instantly felt like a natural fit for our historic first ever women’s fixture against Wales.’
Entry for the fixture has been confirmed as £10 for adults (seating and standing), £7 for Concessions (OAP and students) and free for U16s. If you wish to reserve your tickets please contact Tammy Nurse, the Crawshay’s Club Administrator on Tammy.Nurse@jcpsolicitors.co.uk and we will send the tickets out in the post to you.
We will shortly be announcing the pre-match hospitality arrangements for Vice Presidents and guests.