Fast moving, evasive and involving minimal contact, Touch Rugby is a game played all over the world by men and women of all ages and skills levels. A simple yet exciting game, Touch promotes the fundamental skills of running, handling and support play, whilst developing the basic principles of attack and defence without the fear of getting hurt!

On the back of Ryedale’s Rugby League World Cup Bid’s, Chris Chatten, Rugby League Coach & Community Projects Officer (Sport & Recreation), Ryedale District Council working with local Rugby League Coach Andy Lawley have secured funding from Sport England's Sportivate programme via the North Yorkshire Rugby League Service Area and are setting up adult Touch Rugby sessions starting on Tuesday 17th April 7.00pm till 8.00pm and to continue for 8 consecutive weeks. The sessions will take place at Malton Community Sports Centre AddressP and hopes are a second venue will be confirmed nearer summer.

Touch is the most popular and firmly established introduction to playing rugby with more than 15,000 men and women across the UK take part in organised touch rugby tournaments each year. As the name suggests, touch rugby is a minimal-contact version of the game, without any rucks, mauls, scrums or lineouts, and where touching the player with the ball counts as a tackle. As such, touch rugby is suitable for both men and women, of all skills and experience, from people who have never touched a ball before to experienced club players.

The sessions are a great opportunity for everyone to try a new sport, meet new people and discover the thrill of team games in a friendly environment. You’ll be coached in the basic skills of running, ball handling and teamwork but the main point is to really enjoy the sport.

Chris Chatten said; “Social touch has been successfully running across the country including York for the past two years now and hopes are to replicate it here in Malton where by individual just turn up on the night and are placed into teams.
Complete beginners are welcome to attend as are ex players wishing to keep fit and have some fun. Such schemes have gained good feedback from those attending and would urge people to come along and try it for themselves.”

The sessions will cost £2.50 per session. For more information or to book your place on please PM me.

is there any rugby league in malton?

There is a decent sized Union club. They used to run 2 or 3 open age teams, full junior section, 8's up to 16's, a vets team and a ladies at one point I think. Not much room for league I would have thought.

I had a very strange night out in Malton once.

Good luck with the Touch. It's a great game and we should do more of it in the UK. The Aussies are mad for it.

Good beer up that way!

re Touch, the RFL need to make sure they don;t make the same mistake the ARL did and allow Touch to have no formal link to RL. In Aus it is massive yet it is called Touch Footy and has no links back to the NRL in any way which is a great shame as it is a wonderful vehicle for getting more kids playing the game and spreading it into expansion areas.

Hopefully this is the start of Rugby League in Malton, and gives another opportunity for adults locally to keep fit even if they have no previous knowledge or experience of the game. We would like to encourage both men and women of all ages and abilities to give it a go.

Malton & Norton RUFC is well run and a very successful club. They won Yorkshire 1 league last season and are now holding their own in the North East Divisions. They have an extensive junior section and I understand they have women and girls teams too. The clubs junior section was just about at capacity, but they are now in the process of building larger and more changing areas as an extension of their clubhouse and gained funding from the RFU, Ryedale District Council and Sport England to help make the improvements.

We have secured funding from Sport England's Sportivate funding stream to start up the sessions and are working closely with North Yorkshire Rugby League Service Area to ensure all sessions still link back to the RFL with all new participants registered.

Sessions will start off as social turn up and play touch. However, medium to long term we would like to develop touch leagues in the area and also expand into other towns/venues in Ryedale such as Pickering, Ampleforth, Kirkbymoorside or Helmsley. We are still waiting to hear if we have been successful in bidding to hold one of the Community Rugby League World Cup's (Police, Armed Forces, Womens etc) at Ampleforth College which would be a useful springboard to develop sustainable opportunities to participate in rugby league within Ryedale.

Ryedale and most of North Yorkshire are 'untapped' areas for development in terms of rugby league. York have a number of clubs and junior sections, with some clubs in the Selby area and Scarborough Pirates, along with newly established clubs Yorkshire Coast Titans in Filey and North Yorkshire Broncos and the senior section the North Yorkshire Stallions playing out of Colburn Sports Centre in Richmondshire. We recognise the need to develop opportunities for juniors to play the game within Ryedale both in and out of school. Hopefully this can be developed in the next phase of our legacy plan.