I was invited back to Stowe again this year to photograph the Saints Residential for a full 7 days! This meant that I got to cover the Girls 5 day and boys 3 day camps as well as the Legends Weekend! I couldn’t have been more excited to head to Stowe School in Northamptonshire and capture their journey throughout their stay.
And it really is a journey, especially for some who arrive timid and nervous but end up leaving full of confidence and knowledge, not just about rugby but from the friendships they have made for life.
It all started on Monday 31st July. The girls arrived for their 5 day camp, with nervous but excited faces all round, although some more nervous than others! The boys arrived a day later as their course was a shorter 3 days.
There were 120 girls attending their camp and 175 boys. On the Legends weekend there were another 148. The residential also runs a 5 days boys camp, but that wasn’t happening until the following week which I unfortunately couldn’t attend.
It is such a renowned residential that it is attend by kids from all over the world. This year there were players from Holland, Chile, Italy, Spain, Germany, Singapore, Dubai, Hong Kong, US and Canada.
The Holland girls in particular were heard wherever they went with their speaker blasting out Dutch dance music and keeping everyone dancing and singing as they walked between their training sessions!
The Northampton Saints Community coaches are an incredible bunch of people who run fun and informative sessions offering not only group training but one to one skills and advice. They’re always very approachable and are great at entertaining the kids through training and during downtime.
The girls also enjoyed a day of training with Loughborough Lightning players taking in group sessions and position based skills as well as a signing session at the end of the day.
The boys were treated with a visit from 2 Saints Legends Tom Wood and Dylan Hartley.
They took training sessions throughout the day and Dylan also sat down with a couple of the age groups for a Q&A session which also included an impromptu game of table tennis. This went down very well.
Both camps culminated in an afternoon of games where the parents came to watch their kids exhibit the new skills they had learnt. The pride emanating from the players as they get to show off their skills and from the parents as they seen how that, in such a short space of time, their children have grown as rugby players and most importantly people. Exhibiting rugby values that will last a lifetime.
It really is an incredible atmosphere to be a part of from start to finish.
But it’s not all over yet for it is the return of the Legends Weekend! This year the Legends (L-R, as if the need an introduction) were:
Dylan Hartley, Tom Wood, Luther Burrell, Stephen Myler and Lee Dickson.
From start to finish the Northampton Saints Legends are there, greeting the boys as they arrive, taking coaching sessions through the whole weekend and ending in a photo and signing session on the Sunday after the parents have watched their kids enjoy an afternoon of rugby.
During the week the sun shone, despite the forecast saying much different but the rain built up over the week just to dump it all as the boys arrived.
Thankfully it didn’t last all that long and was really only wet for the first lot of training sessions. It pretty much cleared for the rest of the weekend.
The Legends worked hard all weekend alongside the community coaches to deliver fun and engaging training sessions to all age groups. With individual skills and advice offered throughout.
The lads would have learnt a lot from their knowledge and skills from the professional game for both club and country.
Part of my remit this year was not just photography but also working alongside Northampton Saints “Media guy,” Lewis Dean. It was great to meet and work with him as we collated photos and videos together to create content. Some of my efforts were seen in a couple of carousels and stories on Instagram that I got to produce. And Lewis put together some incredibly creative and engaging videos. It was great working with you Lewis, thank you.
I hope I get the opportunity to return to Stowe again next year. It is the highlight of my photography diary. Also, on a personal level, it is great to be around such inspiring, fun and creative people, it doesn’t feel like work at all.
My brother Connor Fleming and his team that put this residential together, work so hard year round and especially on the camps themselves, to make it the biggest rugby residential in the World! No other rugby club is doing anything close on this scale. It really is an incredible achievement. Well done everyone.
I want to say thank you to Northampton Saints Community team for letting me be a part of the Residential and for making it a extremly fun and rewarding week.
See you next year 🤞🏻