England Touch’s 25 Year history

Taking a moment to reflect on the landmark reached.

England Touch had a slow and tremulous beginning as it was driven by one man Mark Wilkes who at the time was the President of both the English and Great Britain Touch Associations. He traveled the country developing pockets of Touch into organised competitions and setting up infrastructures, referee and coaching clinics.

In fact Mark went broke while in the performance of these Touch ‘duties’, a fact which few, if any, of his critics knew at the time. Affiliation fees may have been used to fund his travel and accommodation, but Mark still sunk considerable time and money into the sport, including part-funding tours for representative teams to Japan and Junior teams to Australia.

In the end he left the country with large groups of players enjoying Touch in a mostly unorganised fashion. New committees were formed to look after the affairs of England Touch but members came and went, such is the nature of a volunteer and amateur sport. 

On the 18th March 1995 England became the 13th member of the Federation of International Touch.

This would be a springboard, not just because we had a presence in the international game, but also because before the end of the decade Glen Whu took a commercial approach to Touch in England and reformed the Committee in 1999. Touch was back on track. In 2006 Craig Irwin applied for Technical Assistance from the Federation particularly for referee coaching. The stability of Touch in England was landmarked by the longevity of Committee Members Jeremy How, Michael Abromowitz, Tom Bedkowski, Greg Binning and Chris Wheeler

In 2009, the association took on Gregg Cropper as President, and a further and accelerated transformation took England Touch to the next level. A much more professional outlook begun, more aligned with major National Governing Bodies with strategy and growth at the heart of his plans. The years since have been a roller-coaster as the Association has grown and developed, with more teams, coaches, volunteers, experience, members and the time and effort put in off the field, is certainly paying dividends.

Over the following 10 years, under Cropper’s leadership and tireless efforts, England Touch has become the leading nation in Europe and a Tier One nation on the global stage. A membership system was created and implemented, along with tiered National Touch Series being developed over time and now gives players and referees alike the opportunity to develop whilst giving England a sustainable revenue to reinvest into the sport. Growth has seen a number of high profile partners join, with technology further helping in the guise of Live Streaming and led to expanded reach with BBC sport taking note and steaming major events.

We’ve been further aligning with other major National Governing Bodies across the sports sector, with strong governance and good practice, and now with 2 paid staff members, Cropper being the first in Jan 2018 and Chris Simon as part time 2nd paid role joining in August 2019, the association is going from strength to strength. We are fast becoming recognised for our ability to host major international championships, including the successful 2018 European Championship in Nottingham and being awarded the Youth Touch World Cup in 2021. We have a strong senior management group with experience from a broad range of sectors, and are well set to progress rapidly across all levels.

Further challenges await, but there’s a real sense of excitement around the sport, and while our goals will be ambitious they will be totally worth it!

We've come a long way... thanks to everyone who has helped us on our journey!