Firstly for those of you who normally read this via the old email method…. it might be a bit delayed this week as the “controller of emails” gru Stopper, has taken himself off for a short Holiday to “Orange Buffon land” and he will have to try and master the internet from New York no less… but a man of his caliber should be able to sort it, in between sightseeing and meeting the lovely people of the city. So… it could be a first, a “Woz on” from America.
On that note, I don’t think I’d be allowed in over there given my comments about the mad man in charge. Mind…. I can’t say our Government are covering themselves in glory either at the mo… Politics hey! but…. at least I can say what I want to in this country without being carted off and I sometimes think we all take this wonderful right for granted given what it’s like in lots of other “Despot” countries.

So what else … rain is a big one at the minute… Do any of you get the flood alerts from the council? I do and mine seems to go off nearly every day at the mo! Who’s monitoring it? Anyway…. We somehow managed to get all the games on last week but the pitches took a hammering for sure and in an effort to give them time to recover we put a ban on training on the pitches this week. Not ideal but got to be done sometimes if we want to play at weekends.

Last Saturday we entertained Brixham for our Twos and OPMs for the ones. Mixed results but both were good close games.
The twos narrowly lost by 13-17. I was linesmanning the Ones (when is Paz back, by the way?) and heard an almighty roar from the Brixham lads near the end of their game so it must have been close. Despite the conditions the handling was very good for both sides . Like the ones it was low scoring and we were up by 5 at half time. Playing with the slope they got a couple of tries we slotted a pen to pull it back to 8-12 but then sneaked over out wide and thought it was done and dusted but we scored again and the final minutes were tense. They hung on and won. Darn it! Great to see lots of new players playing and nice to see Denno teaching them the art of beer drinking games afterward in a nice club atmosphere. As I always say…. “we all have to work hard during the week and a run around on Saturdays and a glass of beer after take the tinge off all that malarky and it sets you up to “go again” for the next week,that is after a Sunday of struggling to move… remember it all very well.
One mention must go to our Junior chair who answered the call to help out player wise… a try in the first half, a couple of passes then a “head in the wrong place” tackle and he had leave the field with a cut eye. I saw him on Monday with a lovely black eye and he told me his wife did the stitching for him on the kitchen table. Bought back memories of being stitched in the changing room at Ilfracombe by a vet who was playing for us at the time. Stuart Butler was his name, anyone know his where abouts? Lovely chap and half decent rugby player I also played with him up at Old Reds in Bristol when I was working up there many moons ago.

The ones with a few absentees had a tough ask on paper and given the size of the opposition this only compounded the concerns. Hey when faced with adversity often, you can surprise yourselves and it was a cracking game and all our boys played really well in tricky, “sticky” conditions. We scored early on but that was it for us as in the first half as we had to deal with being shunted back in the pack. To be fair in reality we looked good in all the other departments of the game and it was only handling errors that denied us a couple of other scores. So 5 zip at half time . Soon after the restart, they knocked over a penalty to make it a very tight game situation but we then took full advantage of the slope and scored twice. It was a very niggly game for sure but we shored the scrum up and we eventually ran out deserved winner by 19-5. It was very entertaining game for the Ton Massive and having finished my line out duties I overheard one of their players talking to one of their supporters and he referred to us as a “nasty side”. Now… in rugby terms, take it from me, that’s a complement that our players enjoyed. Anyway…. a good hard fought win.

More rain over night but games on, on Sunday…. Here’s Stuarts report I might add, written with the use of just one eye.

….”Busy day at club with the odds at home with 14s as well. 7s were up top with Stu Selway in complete control of his gaggle! The 8s were away at Tivvy and came up against a very well drilled mob but despite this we competed well. The 1000’s of our under 9s were also up the top and they played a relatively small number of Withyites . Phil Bennett, Dan Taylor, Ed Cousins and (VC) Nick Giulbert were definitely needed to keep control of them all. The 10s had a great win away at Withycombe and even with a few missing it didn't change the positive result.
The “two team” 11’s, won at Withycombe easily but the boys who went down at Brixham bumped into a very strong outfit and it left our boys with things to think about. The 12s unfortunately didn't play as we were a few players short due to illness and unavailability. Chris & Jenna who do a great job with the team have both put in a plea to parents to be given a bit more notice if the lads can’t play, short notice cry offs causes problems especially if the opposition have to travel.
The 13s played a tight game against Withies and the opposition just clinched it but it was a strong display from our 13s who are still developing with many new players settling in, to what it’s all about. It was also great to see Charlie Akerman scoring in his last game for HRFC as his family emigrate to Fiji. We await his return and when he’s older and returns to Blighty if he could bring a few of them back to play for us as well, we would be grateful.
14s had a tough cup game against cully and lost. We've had a few injuries and we are also missing a few at the moment. Cully had a big squad which helped in the second half.
15s had a great win 38-37 against Withies. Rather a niggly game but none the less some great performances right through the team. Safe to say the changing room was rocking after. You might have heard them from the High street. Tight games are great to win.
There was a great bit of team bonding from the under 16s away as they lost a tight one by 42-17, again a few unavailability’s didn’t help. Speaking to Simon Lancaster after, he felt that we could have definitely won with more availability. “….. Thanks Stuart, this update always helps when doing this report..

Saturday…. It’s going to be touch n go re the second team game which is at home against Exmouth (2.30 ko), reason being the pitches are still very wet… and my “flood alarm” has been dinging re tomorrows awful forecast. I can’t help thinking they are just covering their backs by call it a “flood warning”.
The Ones travel down to Ivybridge for their game on Saturday and it will be an experience as they have a lovely ground and hopefully we can come away with the spoils, kick off is also at 2.30pm

Ok…. on to the Juniors on Sunday obviously weather permitting…Against Exmouth we have 7s, 9’s and 11’s at home to Exmouth and away to them we have the 8’s and 12’s. The 13’s travel to Somerton. The 15’s at home against Sidmouth . the 10’s and 16’s are training and the 14’s have a week off. .

That’s about it for this week …

#UTT

Lord Jez