10 Year Anniversary of the Pumas Rugby Club
North Cyprus
By Ralph Kratzer
It was in October 2003 that a small group of students contacted the GAU Sports Co-ordinator with the request to start an American Football Club – a negative response was given in view of costs.
Mustafa Raiz, one of the students, then persuaded the group to take on Rugby (he had played in the UK) and this was given the “go ahead” by the management.
Training started with the help of Derek Dowey, a lecturer at the University. Derek met Peter Heydon watching TV Rugby and established that Peter was a coach… and the rest is history. Soon the University agreed that an official GAU Rugby Club could be formed.
The first Committee meeting of the Pumas Rugby Club took place in 2004 at Mustafa Sukrettin´s Citrus Tree Gardens in Alsancak. During this meeting Keith Lloyd was appointed Chairman, while Keith Alexander, Richard Bradley, Gilly Woolner, Peter Heydon, Michael O´Sullivan, Sue and Graham Singer made up the Committee. Les Griffiths, Peter Oliver and Eddie Smith joined to strengthen the coaching side.
Yesterday, 26th October 2013, most of the Committee members from these past days came together again at the same place to celebrate the memorable anniversary.
I, as one of the first-ten-years sponsors, was invited together with Chris Elliott, the founder of the website “cyprusscene.com – LIFE AND TIMES IN CYPRUS”, to join the little event.
Chris is currently in the process of publishing a detailed article about the 10-year history of the club, which will soon appear on our websites cyprusscene.com and tfrnorthcyprus.wordpress.com…
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10th Birthday re-union by founding Puma RFC members:
Front row left to right: Richard Bradley, Derek Dowey, Gilly Woolner,Michael O´Sullivan, Mustafa Sukrettin
Back row left to right: Peter Heydon, Eddie Smith, Les Griffiths, Keith Lloyd
