A New Era for the County

At the Durham County AGM held in July 2025, for the first time in the County's 149 year history the members elected a Chairperson!

Up to now the position of Chair was held by the County President, who changed every season. So in this new 'business like' era the members agreed that the position needed to be split and a chair elected to steer the County for 3 years and a maximum of 3 consecutive terms in office.

The new Chair is Jon Raper from Barnard Castle RFC, where he has been a member for 45 years. He comes to the position with a wealth of Rugby knowledge having played at Esher RFC, Haringey RFC, Roundhegians RFC, as well as Barnard Castle RFC.

Jon wants to create an inclusive environment where clubs and their reps feel comfortable in expressing their views, whether at the meetings or via contact with himself or other committee members. In order to do this we need to make it clear to the clubs that the participation of their club reps is essential, participation does not necessarily mean speaking up at meetings, it also involves reading the reports that are sent by the various committees, so they are prepared for the General Committee meeting, reporting back to their clubs on the issues that were discussed, and reporting back to the CB the views and concerns that are being expressed at their individual clubs. A lot of criticism of the RFU over the past few years has focussed on their top down patriarchal approach to the grassroots clubs, Jon feels that we need to introduce a more bottom up approach so that we are best placed to advocate on behalf of our member clubs.

Jon believes that integrity, honesty, inclusiveness and respect ,should be the key drivers of our approach, we should all be aware that as a sport we rely almost exclusively on the participation of volunteers, not just at club level, but at school level and at County levels, and without these behaviours we risk losing the support and participation of these volunteers.

We wish Jon every success in his new role.