After seven years in the role, Wayne Hausen has stepped down as Chair of Tottonians Rugby Club and has been replaced by the pair of Ali Ramus and Michael Searle at the club’s 2026 Annual General Meeting.
In a first for the club, the position of Chair will be a double-handed position with Ali, who played for the club on 221 occasions and Mike, a veteran of 284 appearances in the first XV, taking over the mantle – for the latter, following in the footsteps of his legendary father Paul who was Chairman of the club for 22 years from 1997-2019.
In front of an attentive meeting in the clubhouse on Wednesday evening, the pair outlined their vision for the future of the club with some big changes ahead – we will be running a “Pod of the Totts” next week with them both where they can explain their thoughts for Tottonians going forward.
Ali and Michael will be assisted by newly appointed Vice Chair Rich Buck while Wayne will be become the immediate Past Chair. Miles Northover continues as Secretary but he will be joined by another new name to the committee, Neil Gillett, who becomes Assistant Secretary.
However, in the first big change under the clubs’ new leadership, the committee will be drastically reduced from 35 last season to just 12 with an Senior Committee group being created.
Joining the President, Chairs and Vice Chair, Secretary and Assistant and Immediate Past Chair will be five sub-committee Chairs – namely Bruce Elkins, who will lead the Finance Committee, Mark Parsons who heads up Mini and Juniors, Jeff Rawlins who takes over as Facilities Chair, Director of Rugby Phil Osman leads the Senior Rugby Committee and Richard Isaacs takes the Social Committee reigns.
Club captain Liam Murphy continues for a third season but, in another change, the captains and vice-captains for the 2nd and 3rd XVs will be announced nearer to the start of the season.
There was genuine interest in the room as Ali and Michael stood for over an hour going through the changes and introductions they have been working on over the course of the last five months and with many of their visions already in place and being worked upon – from recruitment to match day experiences to sponsorship and interaction throughout the club – there was plenty of excitement about the future of Tottonians Rugby Club.
