This years event has been cancelled.

There a several reasons for this sad news.

Crawley borough Council wants £1000 to license this Charity competition as an outdoor event. Strange really considering that the grounds of the club are already licensed to play rugby.

Crawley Borough Council will not let us run the event on the preferred end of May Bank holiday weekend on the grounds that it will interfere with pitch maintenance. Strange really as it has not interfered with it on the past 6 years.

Crawley Borough Council has given us the opportunity to have a reduction on the £1000 license fee by way of a 10 page form wanting to know the Ins and Outs of a Ducks backside. By the amount of information they require you would think we were trying to run an event on the scale of Glastonbury.

Crawley Borough Council has caused major organisational issues by only allowing this event to be run at the start of May. This affects all the volunteers and competitors that make the event such an enjoyable one whilst raising cash for the nominated charity “CHASE”.

This event has always been a bunch of fat blokes and their skinny mates getting together, roasting a pig, having a few beers, playing a bit of light hearted rugby and raising money for charity. We have collected over around £20,000 since the conception of this fun day and only the charity will suffer by the sad cancellation.

The end of May weekend has always been used as it does not compete with many other rugby events and is a time that most of our entrants are freed of their volunteer coaching duties within the youth sections of their local clubs.

It is also at a time when many fully qualified referees are available to help make this event run safely and smoothly on the pitches.

This event has always been put together by volunteers and you would think that as each year went by the organisation would become easier.  The Crawley Borough Council restrictions are just making it a more difficult and time consuming event to organise.

NEXT YEARS FATBOY SEVENS 2011

We firstly need a date conducive to everybody’s needs and your input is welcomed.

Are people available to take part if a Saturday date is chosen?

We then need to troll through the Crawley Borough Council paperwork to get the full rebate from their “License” restrictions.

If this is event is then licensed we need:

Port-a-loo’s,

Responsible adult volunteers to be registered before the event as car parking attendants.

All food purveyors are required to be licensed.

Red Cross, St Johns etc, need to be in place, even more expense. Using the volunteer fully trained medical staff we normally have may no longer be an option.

Extra public liability insurances need to be in place.

Temporary membership for Crawley RFC needs to be provided for all attendee’s.

Plus all the usual stuff we handle in the background each year.

We need sponsors to make this happen, not just financially but providers of equipment and services.

GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN WE COULD ALL JUST TURN UP, MUCK IN AND RAISE LOADS OF CASH FOR CHARITY.

BEUROCRACY HAS GONE MAD, NO WONDER THE COUNTRY IS IN A FINANCIAL MELTDOWN.

Any comments or support can be sent to info@fatboysevens.co.uk

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This tournament is designed for the older less athletic player and has a handicap system which favours them. Players are awarded 0.3 points (for or against) for each year they are above or below 35 years of age. They are also awarded 0.5 points (for or against) for each kilogram they are above or below 102 kg (16 stone in English). This attempts to ensure that a team of 60 year old players with well above average cellulite content should be able to beat the Fijian National team.