Colchester Kings get East Anglia welcome
Sam Biscoe, founder of the Colchester Kings, East Anglia's first inclusive rugby team, says the new club will help those joining to make friends, learn a new skill and push themselves beyond their comfort zone.
When Sam landed a job as the head of marketing at the Mercury Theatre he moved to Colchester where his cousin's partner plays in the first team at Colchester Rugby Club.
He was introduced to club President, Maggie Whiteman, and when he explained the importance of an inclusive rugby team and the representation it brought, Maggie was keen to see the first LGBTQ+ team in the region set up at Colchester’s Raven Park.
Said Maggie: “We want to welcome the Kings as part of our community and hope to appeal to everyone and give as many opportunities as possible to play rugby. We are very glad to have them here and it makes a big statement about the kind of club we are.”
Colchester Kings founder Sam said: "As a gay man I would never have played rugby, my mum wrote me letters to get me out of it in PE.
"I was bullied at school and had to drop GCSE drama, as the bullying eventually got that bad, and sports aren’t always welcoming. But with Jake Daniels becoming the UK's first male professional footballer to come out as gay since Justin Fashanu, this feels very timely.
Sam believes the formation of the club will benefit Colchester’s LGBTQ+ community, saying: "It's super important, just having something for our community. With rugby there is the aspect of respecting each other through teamwork, providing a way of meeting people and making friends, while getting some exercise.
“It’s important to bring together a community and encourage people to achieve something that they would never do otherwise. We are having six initial taster sessions and will then run weekly training before hopefully playing a first match in December or January. We are tremendously glad to be part of the growing number of LGBTQ+ rugby clubs across the country.”
Sam hopes that being located just off of the A12, the club will draw in people from across Essex to enjoy rugby in the new team and the first taster session proved the popularity of his plan.
“We had an incredible turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time,” he said. We were joined by Alex and James Mitchell from the Colchester RFC 1st XV who are brothers and have played with the club since they were young.”
The next taster session is 26th June at 12:30pm. For more information on the Colchester Kings and how to get involved, follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and check out their website here: www.colchesterkings.co.uk
