CAMP Hill - the North's leading teambuilding venue - has given newly promoted Otley RUFC a boost in their bid for honours in Allied Dunbar Division Two.

Peak performance training, including bobsleigh work with Olympic star Lenny Paul, effectively met the squad's objectives for team building and

communications.

Results not only indicate that Otley are in fine shape for kick-off but also that three members of the squad could be potential Olympians.

Rob Whatmuff, Simon Smith and Tom Laurison all performed exceptionally under Lenny's expert guidance.

They each came within half a second of breaking the UK all-weather track record at Bedale and their reward is an invitation to attend the British Bobsleigh Association elite training sessons at Bristol later this year.

BBA high prformance coach and four-time Olympian Lenny Paul said: "We are keen to challenge for medals at Park City Utah in 2002 so Otley's programme served our purpose too.

"There is a synergy between our sports. We added value to their squad and hopefully some of their squad might add some value to ours.

"We have traditionally relied on athletes and military personnel but this course proved that rugby union players have all the required characteristics."

He added: "In the bob,

individuals need to be

physically and mentally strong but also appreciate the

importance of teamwork and trust. These players have

enormous potential and with a little specialist coaching, there is no reason why they shouldn't improve more.

Otley's club coach Mike Barnett, keen for a successful start, was delighted with the experience.

"In an era of the game where all players are expected to have professional fitness and skill levels, communication and team spirit can give a club the edge, especially in that vital last 15 minutes of the game.

"It is no good just having high quality individuals, perhaps from disparate areas of the country, if you can't get them to operate as a unit.

"This has never been a problem for Otley but with just five weeks to go before our derby kick-off with Wakefield, we were delighted Camp Hill gave us a marvellous opportunity to work on it, practising a range of mental and physical challenges as a team.

"Everyone in the squad feels that it has really made a difference," he added.

Having a wealth of experience in training corporate clients such as Dixon Motors, Ford or Marconi, Camp Hill has now developed teambuilding programmes specifically for the sporting market.

Camp Hill's marketing director Frazer Campey, said: "This programme was designed to work on building commitment and increasing the performance ratio as a team.

"However, the principle for the corporate market are exactly the same. The results showed that over the day the Otley team increased their competitive edge."

THE list of Otley players who have run out on the hallowed Twickenham turf to play international rugby gets longer.

In last week's article on Steve Rice, we mentioned three ex-Otley players who had represented their country at Twickenham, Nigel Melville, Frank W S Malir and Alf Bateson.

Now ex-secretary of the club, Jeffrey Cooper, has contacted us with the names of two other Otley players who ran out in internationals at Twickenham.

Arthur Gray was born in Otley and played for the club for a number of years.

In 1947 he played for England against Scotland, Ireland and Wales at Twickenham before going on to switch codes and play rugby league.

Lesley Cooper also played for Otley, and was a well-established Welsh international who played against England at the ground.