The sports twinning weekend and visit of the civic party was a great success, with more than 120 Germans making the trip to their twin town by coach, plane and car.
Sports included table tennis, canoeing, riding, petanque, synchronised swimming, tae kwon do and football. Youngsters from the Bradby Club also enjoyed a weekend of friendly competition.
And the cup will stay in Rugby, with the home teams winning 12-8. Adding to the points tally was the impromptu sports leaders' table tennis event, which ended with honours even, and Russelsheim's amazing success at betting on the greyhound racing at Brandon!
Sports twinning officials and Willans Old Boys footballers tried their luck at the dogs and the Germans' ability to pick the winners earned their side two more points!
The civic party enjoyed a busy weekend as usual, including a forum on Saturday morning, learning more about each other's style of government, which proved an interesting and valuable exercise.
They also had a private visit to Althorp House and enjoyed the National Waterways Museum at Stoke Bruerne and a narrow boat cruise.
The weekend concluded with a buffet and presentation evening at the Benn Hall, where twinners of all ages had great fun following the caller's instructions and dancing to the Ringerike-Folk-Ceilidh Band.
Receiving the trophy, Mayor Cllr. Richard Lane thanked all the organisers and everyone who took part.
"It's been another fantastic weekend," he said. "Both for the civic party and all the sports. The people of Rugby have opened their doors and their hearts to our friends from Russelsheim - and, of course, we have won the trophy!
"I look forward to meeting everyone again in Germany next year to continue the friendship that has been going for so long."

CLUB REPORTS
Rugby Table Tennis Club
The honours were well and truly shared in the table tennis twinning event!
Three matches were played on Saturday; Russelsheim Seniors proved too strong for Rugby Seniors (Jack Koumi, Nicolas Perrin, Rachel Pilgrim) winning 10-0.
Russelsheim Junior A (Tobias 1, Anil, Umut) lost 1-9 to Rugby Junior A (Daniel 3, Jack 2, Matthew 3 doubles). Russelsheim Junior B (Jason 2, Marcel H 2, Marcel V 1 doubles) won 6-4 against Rugby Junior B (Ben Meakin 3, Thomas Frampton 1, Matthew Frampton).
Sue and Dorothy laid on a marvellous buffet lunch so no one went hungry!
After the day's play the clubs went 'up the park' to kick a ball about and in the evening went along to the ten-pin bowling alley at Junction One.

Three matches were played on Sunday; once again Russelsheim Seniors won (6-4) against a different team of Rugby Seniors. This time club coach Adrian Pilgrim added a level of respectability to the score by winning his three singles and teaming up with Don to win the doubles. Russelsheim Junior A
(Tobias 1, Anil 2, Jason) lost 3-7 to Rugby Junior A (Daniel 3, Ben 2, Matthew 1 doubles). Russelsheim Junior B (Umut 2, Marcel H 1, Marcel V doubles) lost 4-6 to Rugby Mixed (Tristan Mobbs 3, Jackie Frampton 2, Jo Outhwaite 1).
After six matches the score was 3-3 and an inseparable 30-30 in games; it was even closer than the cricket!
On Sunday evening there was a Civic 'do' at the town hall to round off the weekend before the guests got their coach home at midnight. Everyone certainly seemed to have enjoyed themselves and the future of table tennis twinning looks healthy for several years to come!
See full results on: www.RugbyTableTennisClub.net

Rugby Canoe Club
Five Russelsheim club members arrived on Friday afternoon after a journey which included sightseeing in Worcester, through London, Hyde Park, the London Eye and other such places (they got it wrong somewhere)! We all met at the Boat Inn, Newbold-on-Avon for the now regular skittles tournament to start of the weekend.
On Saturday morning we all met up at Draycote Water for the competitions; taking the format of 'get as wet as you can'. After a swift picnic, the group went off to the Motor Museum at Coventry, which was enjoyed by all who could go.
Then it was back to Rugby for the Club Barbecue, which was held at the organiser's home and proved its usual success, especially with the weather staying dry.
On Sunday morning everyone went off to Symonds Yat for an eight mile paddle downstream to the Yat rapids. One of the guests had been paddling for only one month but did extremely well.
Most of the group went to the rapids and found them just the right level for their ability. In the Russelsheim area there are few rivers that have rapids, so they usually paddle full, flat rivers. They enjoyed the ability to see the bottom of the river. Everyone slept for most of the journey home!
As usual, the Boat Inn was the venue for the last game of skittles and this year Russelsheim took the trophy home. After a good weekend we waved them off for another year.

Bradby Club
Youth clubs from the two towns enjoyed a weekend of football, netball and table tennis as well as a visit to Stratford. There were 13 youngsters from Russelsheim who made the trip to Rugby, teaming up with 13 of the Bradby members.

Rugby Riding Club
Once again a fantastic time was had with our old and new friends from RSVR, with four new young visitors twinning is looking healthy. One of the younger visitors Kisten Jones was so uptight she got to the aiport at five in the morning the day before she was actually flying!
The competition was as close as ever with a final score of 625 to 609 in favour of Rugby with the social side being as diverse as visits to Althorp and the Town and Country.
A big thanks to all who hosted, and also to those who have worked hard through the year to make this a success for RRC.

Rugby Swimming Club,
synchronised swimming section
Another successful twinning weekend between the synchronised swimming clubs of Rugby and Russelsheim.
Although tired from their previous day's journey the girls from Russelsheim enjoyed ten pin bowling on Saturday, followed by a competition held at Ken Marriott Leisure Centre that afternoon.
The team from Rugby was a young team who swam well against the older girls from Russelsheim. In the 12 and under age group, Lucy Townsend - Kennedy was third, Jasmine Humphreys fourth and Meghan Hutchings fifth in the solo section.
Lucy Townsend - Kennedy and Meghan Hutchings in second place in the 12 and under duet with Amy Townsend - Kennedy and Ceri Turner, both 7, coming third, this being their first competition.
Lauren Madeley came second in the 14/15 solo, Hollie Adams and Emily Firth came first in the 14/15 duet. Russelsheim swam two teams coming first and second, with Rugby's team, Lucy Townsend - Kennedy, Bethany Walker, Jasmine and Sasha Humphreys, Diana and Phillippa Andrew, Meghan Hutchings and Catherine Parker, in third position. Russelsheim won the competition overall by 10 points. Saturday ended with an evening BBQ and disco.
A good day was had by all on Sunday at the Town and Country Festival at Stoneleigh, followed by the evening event held at the Benn Hall where all the twinning disciplines gathered to celebrate the twinning weekend.

Tae Kwon Do
Vendon Wright's tae kwon do club enjoyed their twinning weekend very much.
Although they won the twinning competition, Russelsheim put on an amazing demonstration for their hosts.
They executed many high kicks is slow motion showing their controlled balance.
The visitors enjoyed seeing Rugby School and the Rugby Football shop. Then we took them to the Town and Country show and had a barbecue.
The club have twinned since 1998 and their friendship with Russelsheim is growing fast.

TG 1862 and
Willans Old Boys Association
The 25th visit of Tumgemeinde resulted in a win for the home team, Willans OB.
The competition was conducted in two parts, football skills and a game, both won by Willans.
Man of the match was Ed Beynon, playing his first game and scoring two of Willans' four goals. The game was interrupted by the referee receiving a call on his mobile phone!
But it continued in the spirit it has always been played in, one of friendship and respect. The clubs would like to thank Wilf Simms and Crick FC for their support and loan of facilities.