The Blue Sox - The beginning
Banbridge RFC has always had a fine touring tradition. The club has travelled to Canada and South Africa in recent years as well as visiting UK, Irish and European venues in the past. With the advent of the AIL league rugby at Rifle Park, Bann's regular trips to Gort and Peebles faded and it seemed that the good old days of social touring might be lost forever.
Luckily some club members had other ideas.
Lyle Cairns got things going again when he ran a 'one off' tour to Oldham in 1997 for a match against Duckinfield 2nd XV. You can read about the tour on the Oldham tour page. Unfortunately there are no pictures for this tour as we cannot find the camera they were taken on! The search continues and maybe it will turn up some day.
Blue Sox tours to date;
1997 - Oldham (Duckinfield RUFC 2nd XV)
1998 - Newcastle (Morpeth RFC 'Edwardians')
1999 - Cardiff (Treherbert RFC 2nd XV)
2000 - Edinburgh (Edinburgh Academicals RFC 'Apatheticals')
2001 - Netherlands (Tilburg RFC and AAC Amsterdam RFC)
2002 - Isle of Man (Ramsey RFC)
2003 - Czech Republic (Tatra Smichov RFC and Ricany RFC)
2004 - Uxbridge (Uxbridge RFC 2nd XV)
2005 - Estonia (Tallin Tigers RFC and Estonia National 7's winners)
2006 - Blackpool (Kirkby Lonsdale RFC)
2007 - Germany (Munich RFC and Munich 7's Q/Finalists)
2008 - Devon (South Molton RFC 2nd XV)
2009 - Portugal (RC Loule and Rugby da Linha)
You can read a report on each tour and see some photos on the respective tour page. All except Oldham that is!