The TIPRA committee have been graciously given the upstairs room at the Willoughby on Saturday 27 February for the Italy v Scotland game, followed by the England v Ireland game (kicks offs 1.30pm, 4.00pm respectively) it would be great to see you there. Rick the landlord has no problem with the boys coming along too.

As usual, The Willoughby is making the Six Nations an extra special event: during every game you can get the locally brewed Grandstand Bitter for £2.50 a pint, or £9 for a 4 pint jug and they are also running a ‘Predict It’ competition for each match where you can win a pint, 4 pints or a gallon of the beer you’ve been drinking should your prediction skills be spot on.

And if that’s not enough to entice you Rick is also running a St Valentine’s Beer Festival – for all lovers of dark beers – from Feb 11-14.

TIPRA are aware that amongst the enthusiasts on the sidelines every Saturday morning there are few coaches who do Sunday morning/afternoon with local youth squads. We’d like to bring to your attention a new coaching site that has approached us: Better Rugby Coaching – free rugby drills, free weekly e-mails on coaching, strategies, fitness etc. We think it’s a win-win – see what you think.

Under a government initiative Kingston Specsavers offered a free sight test to all Tiffin boys last school year. The usual cost of a test was then returned to the school’s sports department for each boy who took up the offer. Hmmm. And no catch? It appears not.

On the back of the success of the scheme the money has been shared between different sports – the Rugby department has been able to get 40 training jackets for the Senior squad and fix up the Second XV with a new kit baring the name of Specsavers (see below).

Tipra has a new logo, as you can see at the top of the page. Basically we’ve just tidied up the edges of the old one (on the left), added a splash of blue, and put the three fishes of the school, and of course the borough, into the loop of the ‘R’. We hope you like it.