This post was written by Chibudu Nyiro
The club is in the process of a renewal, and we have decided to have various club members post on the blog in order to increase participation and visibility. All contributors are welcome!
The pandemic, just like everywhere else in the world, well apart from Australia and New Zealand has disrupted sporting activity and the smaller amateur clubs have hurt the most. Malindi was no exception, we could not have our high school boys out on the fields training and playing neither did the club get it any easier. The 2019/2020 season saw the Malindi high school rugby team win its way to the regional tournament but this streak unfortunately came to an end. The pandemic was getting its way in the country and cases continued to surge by the day, the government hence decided to ban any sporting activities and initiated a curfew and lockdown. Covid had won the first round of this; Covid 1 - Malindi rugby 0. Covid took a 2 - 0 lead as the club too suffered tremendously when the national government prohibited sports with sights to contain the pandemic. Contact sports across the country have since remained ‘banned’ at least for the time being.
With 2021, new directives came to pass that allowed students back into schools. However, any outsider was not allowed into any school campus and contact sports for the students was still prohibited by the ministry of health. This proved to be another winner for the ‘COVID’ as it took a quick 3 - 0 lead and extended it with a 4 - 0 lead when the club too could not use the facilities to train. Rugby in Malindi was surely taking up a good beating.
The rugby brains are not one to be defeated, a small gathering of Malindi residents led by Goeff Ingram a Kenyanised Kiwi came up with the perfect solution to the problem. Goeff Ingram introduced the club to potential sponsors Malindi Golf Club. The golf club elected to host the club and partition part of the range as a playing turf for the boys. The first meeting had our club captain, Sammy Khabiri reach out to the club and then later the club sent in their board to meet a few players from the rugby club. I honestly love this partnership, it offers a direct positive environment to the boys through mentorship, balance and support. The golf club’s vice chairman immediately supported two boys with their subscription fees and Goeff paid for 24 of the boys who showed up that day. Malindi rugby football club finally had a home, Covid 4 - Malindi rugby 1.
The golf club sees an opportunity with the rugby club. It offers an injection of youth into the club’s profile. Most of the rugby players, mainly from Malindi high, its rival Barani secondary school and obviously the ever-young Giriama maestro James Terjanian. With home ground fairly sorted out, the club went ahead and organised a few fundraising raffle competitions at the ever-supportive Driftwood Beach Club and from the proceeds bought balls, kit and financed a trip down to Mombasa for a touch rugby tournament. Rugby was back in Malindi and excitement was brewing. The boys participated with two squads who played each other in the quarter finals. Unfortunately, one had to leave the tournament while the other lost in the semi final but finished third in the tournament.
With the club back to playing some form of competitive rugby and winning while at it was a good indicator that Malindi rugby is slowly staging a comeback against the covid pandemic, so far Covid 4 - Malindi rugby 2.
It does not stop there; more developments are coming. Keep it here for cool stories and hopefully some tea afterwards :)
Kwaheri….
