England Touch Association sets sights on continued growth

• Touch is one of England’s fastest growing participation sports with nearly 20,000 people playing regularly
• England Touch Association setting targets for continued growth ahead of 2018 European Touch Championship in Nottingham
• England Touch Association developing sponsorships and partnerships to help achieve its goals
• England Touch Association developing programmes for delivery among all ages, from schools to senior citizens

The England Touch Association has set out its goals for the continued expansion of one of the country’s fastest growing participation sports.

Over the past five years the England Touch Association (ETA) has grown rapidly and now has nearly 70 affiliated clubs across the country. And after a 2016 in which England won the overall gold medal at the European Touch Championships (ETC) the ETA management is setting its sights on using this achievement as a springboard for the future and emulate this result when the ETC is hosted in Nottingham in summer 2018.

The ETA is expanding its work across a wide spectrum, including:

• Developing its programmes for introducing the sport in schools
• Expanding the association’s national tournaments for affiliated clubs and universities and formally launching England Touch Leagues to establish competitions in new areas of the country
• Working with current sponsors and exploring new opportunities
• Continuing its groundbreaking research into the specific medical and sports science requirements of elite and club Touch players
• Spearheading the development of players, coaches and referees
• Celebrate the sport with the ETA’s first annual national awards evening

Chief executive Gregg Cropper says that he is excited about the future of Touch in England.

“We’ve grown rapidly over the past few years but at the ETA we believe that there’s plenty more to come in the future,” he said. “We’re continually striving to improve the experience of participating in Touch and ensuring that our players enjoy the moment, the games they’ve played in and then tell others about our great sport, too.

“Touch is a truly mixed sport where women and men play alongside each other at all levels, and our membership base has grown significantly over the past 12 months. We’ve done an enormous amount of work on governance, ensuring that we are both compliant with best practice from Sport England and are future-proofing the association while guaranteeing we’re as transparent as possible.

“At all levels of the game we are committed to staying at the cutting edge, from medical and coaching to sponsorship and referee development. We have some great sponsors and with more and more people wanting to take up a code of rugby than ever before we believe we are well set to make sure that Touch is the sport they choose, one that is accessible, exciting and fun to be a part of.”

CLICK HERE to download the 2016 England Touch Association Annual Report.