East Kilbride Rugby Club is set to be a hive of activity later this month when their ‘Queen Bees’ section help host an action-packed festival aimed at showcasing girls and women’s teams.
Attracting club sides from all around the country, involving around 300 players from the ages of 12 upwards, Torrance House will play host on Sunday, May 29.
EK’s women’s team and their Wannabees Touch Rugby Team will take part alongside the Queen Bees section for under-12 to under-18s.
There will also be teams attending from Oban, Cartha, Biggar, Hamilton, Marr, Wigtownshire, Irvine, Strathaven, Waysiders, Kilmarnock, Dumfries and Greenock.
But the festival will also be a chance for East Kilbride to promote the launch of a new women’s team for next season.
In previous years, the club has lost some of their best players to local rivals with no first team pathway available but that is set to change as the club aim to have a thriving women’s side for the first time in over two decades.
That plan is only now possible, in part, due to the success of the club’s Queen Bees section, whose under-16 side reached the semi-finals of the National Cup pre-Covid.
Women’s section coach Elaine Martin explained: “This coming season we are going to create a women’s team which will give the opportunity for our current U18 girls to stay in the game and still play for East Kilbride.
“Quite a few of our previous players are now playing for Cartha, Bigger and Hamilton as that was the only local clubs that could offer them to continue in with their sport.
“Back in the late 1990’s EK had a thriving ladies’ section, coached by Kenny MacDonald, and many of his players were capped for Scotland.
“As the years drifted on the section stopped playing due to work commitments and female rugby being a slow burner with other teams within the country.
“Girls can play alongside boys at the primary school age but once they went to high school there was nothing for them to continue their rugby journey unless they travelled through to Edinburgh, which is a big commitment for the player and their parents.
“So around six years ago we were looking at a way of incorporating the girls team that Duncanrig High School had formed being part of the Schools of Rugby initiative the SRU were supporting to get more young people playing rugby with the girls that were coming of age form the Mini rugby section.
“The Queen Bees girls rugby team was created, we played local teams like Cartha and Biggar to give the girls more game time and to develop their skill set.
“We have managed to produce two potential future Scotland full international stars in former Queen Bee and current U20 player Charlie Boan and U18 player Kirsty Ritchie.
“It shows the girls what they can achieve if they keep playing the sport.”
Recently the club has also set up touch rugby sessions for females called “The Wannabees”, which allows mums, grans and aunties to exercise outdoors and encourages families to play rugby together.
More details on this will be provided at the festival and potential members can get a closer look at EK’s setup.
Elaine added: “At our festival there will be passion, competition and, as always, great fun for competitors and spectators alike as we celebrate the sporting talent on show.
“We are striving to create an enjoyable environment for our young women to flourish in the backdrop of competitive sport.”
If you or someone you know would like to get involved, you can go along to a session at Torrance House, call 07929 106381 or email queenbees@ekrfc.co.uk for more details. They are also on Instagram and TikTok.
Local businesses who may like to support the rugby festival or advertise in the match programme can also get in touch via the same details.
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