U12 Costessey Dragons
We are proud to support Under 12s Dragons football club Costessey!
They were chosen to be on the side lines for the Norwich City Home game!
Sporting their Firstcall Football Tops!
Toftwood Infant School
Road Safety
Thank you so so much for organising that for our children, they thoroughly enjoyed it and came back so excited! They wanted the sign up straight away so our caretaker put it up in the outdoor area that afternoon and they’ve been busy putting up traffic lights and telling everyone they know how to switch them on! Such a fab learning experience for them. I have attached a picture one of them drew and a photo of the set up.
Many thanks again,
Isobel.
Donation for Children
with Disabilities
A total of £1000 in Cash was donated by a Norwich Company to help make Christmas a little easier and more exciting for children with disabilities.
Director of First Call Traffic Management Kelly Lewis is pictured here with Yussif, Manager of CWD Team City and south 2. Kelly and her company's chief executive officer Julian Phillippo teamed up with CWD team to buy warm blankets, socks, gloves, hats, snuggle hoodies, sensory toys, biscuits, chocolates and 10x £20 food vouchers.
The gifts were delivered to the CWD office and distributed to the children and families who needed the.
Hingham Primary School
We are proud to support Hingham Primary School. We presented them with a £500 Donation!
Here is a message from the Headteacher
I just wanted to write to say an enormous thank you to you and all at First Calls. We are so grateful for your generous donation. We have a number of projects that we are hoping to do and this money will support us in doing them. We are meeting with are "Friends of Hingham School" on Friday to decide how we will allocate it. Once again, a huge THANK YOU!
Kind regards
Mrs Vickie Newrick
Headteacher
Beetley Pre-School
We are proud to support Beetley District Pre-School.
This charity based Pre-School that offers a great setting with amazing staff.
They offer great support to families of the children who attend and are highly rated from Ofsted!
We presented them with £500 donation.
Below a statement from the Pre-school
Thank you, First Call Traffic Management, for the generous cheque of £500.00 you donated to Beetley & District Preschool on April. The staff, committee, and children are very grateful. We have used some of the money to purchase some new bikes for the children to use and the remainder will be used towards some construction toys. Mrs Diane Calvert -manager receiving a cheque of £500.00 from Miss Staci Lewis of First Call Traffic Management.
Air Ambulance Fund Raiser
We are proud to have helped raise £852 for the Air Ambulance
A Child's Battle with AML#LoveforGeorge: A Child's Battle with AML
We were to delighted to support George and his family after one of our employees applied for a company donation via our Charity and community support grants scheme. Please ready their story below, we wish them all the best of luck for the future
Toddlers, especially little boys, are always full of adventure and mischief. Whether it's climbing to the top of something wobbly in the blink of an eye, or exploring the ever-exciting world of cause and effect (like "what happens when I throw this heavy object?"), they are always walking a fine line between hilarity and catastrophe. George is exactly this. The youngest of two boys, George is daring, funny, at times nerve-wracking--he is truly larger than life. He's spent the last two and a half years growing into a lovable daredevil who lives to keep his parents on their toes, filling their lives with so many extra laughs and smiles (and near heart attacks) they never knew they needed. As of late, the laughs and smiles have faded. After an earth-shattering diagnosis over a weekend at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Tom and Vicki's lives, as well as the lives of everyone around them, have been completely changed. Sunday morning, George was diagnosed with AML, or Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare type of cancer found in approximately 3,000 people in the UK each year. He's already had chemotherapy and blood transfusions to help his body fight this terrible illness, and while everyone's hopes are high, his journey has just begun. With two very loving parents at his side, a huge network of the most supportive family and friends, and a team of medical personnel helping to get him healthy again, George has just about everything he needs right now, but this road ahead is long and exhausting. Tom and Vicki will split their time between hospital and home, hospital and work, hospital and sleep. Six months of restless nights, traveling amidst a pandemic, and living away from home in the middle of a nationwide lockdown will take its toll. Six months of filling up with fuel to get home to see Charlie and back to the hospital to see George will add up. Six months of lost income while supporting two households (their actual home and their temporary home near George) will have a huge impact on their livelihood. It is my hope that, together, we can support the Pearce family during this time--not only through prayers, but by helping to ease some of the financial burden that these next six months will surely have on them. There aren't many people that are kinder, more down to earth, or better friends than Tom and Vicki are to everyone blessed to know them, and I know we can all come together to make this time easier on them. Let's show #LoveforGeorge, and help them while they help George get back to his healthy, happy childhood.
Norwich Rugby Club
Although there are records of rugby being played in Norwich in 1873, the club itself was not formed until 1884. Even then the club played only sporadically until a regular list of fixtures was made for the season in 1896 and that year saw the team photographed for what appears to be the first time. This wonderful old picture, reproduced below, now hangs proudly, in an enlarged version, in a dominant position in the clubhouse at Beeston Hyrne.
Many of the early games were played at Newmarket Road in Norwich and there are records of fixtures against Ipswich, East Suffolk, Essex, The Norwich School and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. In the early 20th century Norwich Rugby Club grew quickly and in 1905 they had the services of E.W.Roberts who played 13 times for England and gained one of those caps whilst a Norwich player. This unfortunately appears unrecorded in most international records but Norwich can truly lay claim to this single senior international cap. The Great War from 1914 to 1918 put an end to rugby in any serious sense until 1922 when the club was resurrected after a meeting at The Bell Hotel and the club played a practice match the following day on a meadow in Thorpe Hamlet. Soon matches against Ipswich and Lowestoft resumed and many of these fixtures attracted crowds of more than a thousand people. In 1929 the club changed its colours from yellow and green to maroon, green and gold and played on Carey’s Meadow in Thorpe. In 1934 the club moved to Boundary Park and remained there until 1939 when a lease was taken on the ground at Bishopgate behind The Great Hospital in the shadow of the cathedral. Very few games were played in the early Bishopgate days because of the Second World War, but subsequently this ground became a strong spiritual home for the club and was the first location of a clubhouse for post match festivities. The success of the club over the next fifteen years was such that a larger ground to accommodate four teams and better clubhouse facilities saw the move to the club’s first wholly owned location at Fifer’s Lane near St Faiths airfield. The purchase was largely made possible by the huge success of the annual summer carnivals that were staged at Bishopgate. Fifer’s Lane had fifteen acres and the finances were helped by the continuation for some years of the carnivals at Bishopgate. In 1955 an England trial match was held at Fifer’s Lane and Norwich played an international XV and regularly hosted Eastern Counties matches. The club grew in membership and Fifer’s Lane became a legendary location for many young players drawn to the success of local rugby. The club was now known officially as Norwich Rugby Football Club as distinct from Norwich Rugby Union Football Club to avoid confusion with the international insurance company based in the city. Huge success throughout the 1950’s saw fixtures against The full Royal Air Force team and regular games with Leicester, Northampton, Bedford and many of the big London clubs. It was at this time that an annual fixture with the Norwich twin town of Rouen in France began and continued until recent times. The sale of Fifer’s Lane saw the club move to Beeston Hyrne in 1971. The new ground was considered to be at the cutting edge of rugby playing facilities with superb provision for changing and training, whist the clubhouse had a large open plan bar with room for all that an ever growing club could wish for. In 1982 playing standard floodlights were installed. The club dominated local competition for many years and in 1983-84 played mighty Bristol at Beeston Hyrne in the last 32 stage of the John Player Cup.
With the introduction of league rugby Norwich were placed in London Division 2 North and it took some years before promotion to London Division 1 was achieved. After only one season at that level the club was promoted to National League Division 3 and remained there for two seasons before relegations found it back to the start in London Division 2 North (re-designated London 3NE when the RFU realigned the leagues). However promotion during the 2012/13 season found the team promoted into London 2 North East. The next promotion happened in 2019/20 when the 1st XV were promoted to London 1 North. this was a season where the team went undefeated although the season was cut short, with 4 games remaining due to the COVID-19 crisis. A 'Best Playing Record' formula was applied and the team promoted. At that point they only needed 7 points to be mathematically secure and with fixtures against 2 relegated sides to play, among the final 4.
Norwich remains an ambitious club and in recent years has seen the enormous growth of Mini and Youth rugby. This development, coupled with the resurgence of the third and fourth teams, ensures that the torch lit by the founders in 1884 burns still bright in the 21st century.
We are proud to have helped in raising £135k for NCF
NCF is an independent local charity helping ordinary people do extraordinary things that make our local communities thrive, and improve the lives of people who live there. We provide local funding and support that ensures that small local charities and voluntary groups can continue and grow, providing essential care, support and opportunity for the most vulnerable in our communities. All funds raised are invested in Norfolk to make a real difference to local lives. Led by our local knowledge and insight, we direct support to where it is most needed. Your fundraising support will be directed to the charities needing funding the most. Over the coming weeks of training we are looking forward to sharing stories of the types of projects your help will make happen. We are delighted to be working with you and want to thank you for partnering with us on the ‘Ride to Recovery