In response to Mr Filer’s frustrations expressed in his letter last week, on behalf of Minehead Barbarians RFC I would just like to clarify some points.

ESF Events Ltd, who stage the festival to which Mr Filer referred, are the leading specialist sports tour operators in the UK.

The Rugby Union festival is supported by Leicester Tigers and takes place over three weekends a year. Two of these are held in Minehead.

The accommodation is provided by Butlin’s, who sponsor the mini and junior section at Minehead Barbarians, hence the name on our shirts.

Clubs from around the UK pay ESF Events Ltd up to £185 per person (players, parents and coaches) to take part in the weekend festival.

Venues for the matches are provided by the Barbarians, Minehead Middle School and additionally this year by West Somerset College. A wonderful team of hard-working volunteers from Minehead Barbarians additionally provides refreshment facilities at all of the venues.

The funds raised from the hire of the club’s facilities and this refreshment provision enable us to run our rugby club, which in turn provides all our members with the facilities to enjoy rugby each year at a very affordable membership fee, one of the lowest fees in the country.

As a concession for the assistance we give by providing use of our facilities, ESF Events Ltd try to accommodate a free entry for Minehead Barbarians at each age group if not enough clubs have entered the competition and if the fixture schedules and timings allow.

This year for the first weekend festival we were fortunate to be able to enter teams at U7, U8, U9, U10, U11 and U14, and additionally some of our U15s joined with a visiting team and helped them.

For the second weekend we had entries for U7s and U8s and some of our U10s and U11s joined up with a visiting team and helped them out.

So plenty of rugby was made available to a lot of our young players. Unfortunately, ESF Events Ltd were not able to accommodate a couple of our teams; however in previous years many of these players have taken part.

Our team of volunteers who help our club during these events is made up of players, coaches, club members and friends and also sometimes some of our young players and their parents who, whether taking part in the festival or not, realise the importance of supporting their club to raise funds whenever possible, and I would like to express the club’s gratitude for all those who helped and for your continued support.

Steve Murray, Mini and Junior Section Chairman, Miunehead Barbarians RFC.