Will Britten makes history as Newark Rugby Club’s longest captain
A sportsman who first started playing for his childhood club has been celebrated as the club's longest-serving captain.
Newark Rugby Club's Will Britten is leading his side out for a record sixth season.
"I have played down here since I was about five or six," said Britten.
Rugby runs in the Britten family with Will's father Graeme and his uncle Glynn both also previously playing for the Newark club.
"I made my debut for the 1sts when I was 17 in 2011," said Britten.
"When I became the club captain, I was 24.
"I went to Loughborough University and also played rugby there while studying.
"After university, I went to Solihull and dabbled at a couple of clubs but primarily it has been Newark.
"I have always wanted to come back when I have been away.
"What you find here is a solid group of mates and it is the best thing to do on a Saturday.
"There is nothing like hanging out with your pals and getting a bit of exercise under your belt.
"We like to chuck the ball around here, I think we play a good brand of rugby.
"It isn't kick and clap boring stuff, we like to express ourselves on the pitch."
Britten predominantly plays in the centres but this year has had to fill the fly-half position due to former teammates moving on.
"I will always remember my first senior season," said Britten.
"It was very special to me, we had a group of players that were just unbelievable.
"When I started playing, they had been successful in previous years but had just come down.
"We had a really strong team, and I think that season we were undefeated.
"To go all year without losing was pretty amazing.
"At that point, we were a really good team and for me playing on the wing, managing to bag a few tries was memorable.
"A few years ago, we had new coaches Adam Corcoran and James Offer come in who introduced us to a new way of playing and freed us up a lot.
"We started playing exciting rugby and scoring a lot of tries."
Britten said that he wanted to keep playing while he still enjoyed it.
"Everyone comes down here to play for enjoyment.
"At the end of the day, we are not professional rugby players, it is amateur rugby.
"We don't pay so there is no money motivation.
"People are here because they want to be here."
Britten added that he was happy with how the club was progressing.
"We have been working on defence.
"In previous seasons we have focused on attacking and not looked as much at defending.
"We have changed that this year, It is great to work on something in the pre-season and you see it manifest on the field.
"It was pleasing in our match against Sutton Coldfield that we won 62-10 and didn't concede a large amount of points.
"We have gotten out of that mindset of we have scored x amount of tries, it doesn't matter if we concede a certain number of points, we will still have more than them.
"That is something we have wanted to move away from doing.
"It is a good sign putting so many points on a team that did well last season.
"We always want to finish in the top four ourselves, that is the minimum.
"Last season we came sixth but we were outside that top-four goal by only three points, it was super tight."
Britten wants to continue playing but is realistic that one day he will have to look at other options.
"At the moment I just want to focus on this year and get it out of the way.
"I will always want to be involved with Newark Rugby Club to some degree.
"I think in the future I will want to do some sort of role to help, whether that is coaching or something else.
"I've started to do some of the social media for the club.
"Anything I can do to add value here, I will give it a go.
"This club has given me so much and it would be brilliant to give back to it.
"I love coming down here and watching the minis, the Colts and now we have the women's team as well.
"It is a positive place to be and it is testament to the fact that we can field three sides regularly.
"You don't see many clubs at this level being able to do that."
