Well… firstly, sorry about you all not getting a communication last week but there was a bit of a mix up… I was on a holibob with the family and the Chair didn’t realise he was expected to do some scribing in my absence. Hey ho, these things happen.

So… I missed the big game against Torquay and I have receive a bit of stick for taking two of our players away with me on this Holiday. I could try and defend my position on that but is there any point, it was in the rugby season. Anyway the big show down resulted in a defeat which was disappointing for us. We were down to 14 men before half time because of a red card which made the job even tougher. Despite give a fairly good account of our selves we went down by 36-12 and on the day, the better team won. That means the Tics (as they are known) are still unbeaten and lead the division at the mo. I fear they will take some stopping now. I will hazard a guess though, that our boys can’t wait for the return match at our place.

Now… last weekend there was one of these gap weekends so there was no senior rugby to report on.

What else has happened this week … oh yes, Donald Trump got elected in America (big pause……) I’ll leave it at that and I’ll just say congratulations to the American people! Read into that what you will.

On to our junior games last weekend, firstly it was a glorious day for rugger. What is going on? The weather playing ball! All teams played Sidmuff. It was half term so most teams were a tad light on personnel but no matter, at their place the 13’s won as did the 12’s at the Ton. The 11’s narrowly lost and the 10’s did a bit of a demolition job on their visitors. The 9’s just won and Phil Bennett & Dan Taylors under 8s performed well and had a great game of tag, Lee & Nicki Snells 7s are growing in numbers by the week and all 12 players enjoyed some very competitive games at Sidford. Think we can say we won comfortably on aggregate.

Ok a few notices… and first some good news, one of our old boys Brendon Findlay who has had several years of hard graft with Kidney failure has now, at long last had a kidney transplant and all is going well. I spoke with him and as we compared scars, he said he was feeling much better and hopefully on the mend. Apparently he can drink beer now!!

Now some not so good news… a young lad called Jack Constable who played for our under 16’s when it was managed by Karen and Richard Woolacott, is going through a really tough time at the mo, he’s had countless rounds of Chemo and proton beam therapy and a gruelling 12 hour operation to try and help with his cancer illness. Unfortunately things are pretty tough at the mo and he has to go to Bristol for a lot of specialist support. To make his life easier he would like to get this support at home but it cost and it’s a lot and at home it’s not funded by the NHS. I don’t know him personally but by all accounts he is a very positive 18 year old who doesn’t like to make a fuss. So…. I just wanted to let you know he has a just giving page on the “Gofundme” app. I can’t down load it on to this email but it gives all the details there and any support you can give will obviously help. We are as a club, going to donate a large chunk of our pitch collect this Saturday to try and add to the support fund . It’s all such a shame for this young man. If you can help please do.
Here’s the link https://gofund.me/3a699a8d
Ok…. on to this weekend… it’s the The Paddy Thompson trophy game!! Played between us and Exeter Saracens since the year dot. The two clubs play for the trophy every time we play. It was one each last season and we currently hold the bragging rights. We also have a big sponsors lunch for my brother in Law Simon Bartlett and his Beer boys chums. They do like a good day out! It took me three days to recover from our low key Somerset Cricket outing in the summer when I last went out with them and last year at this lunch they drank our place dry. His company is called Beer self-drive motor boats and without being biased if you have a spare half a day in the summer I’d say it’s worth a trip over to have a pootle about round the bay.
Hopefully we can entertain them with a good game of rugby. Sarries are currently above us in the league at the mo, so no easy game on paper.

If that’s not enough we also have our Seconds at home against Credition. This means it can’t help but be a very busy afternoon at the Tonsville. Both games definitely kick off at 2.30 as the clocks have now gone back.

On to Sunday and our Junior fixtures… Home on the top pitch we have the 7s who KO10am and the 11’s who KO at the same time, the 13’s then play at 11.30. On the bottom pitch the 9’s who kick off at 11.30 and all these sides are playing Exeter Athletic.

Away at Exeter Athletic we have the 8’s 10’s 12’s and 14’s and our 15’s are play Old Plymouthian and Manamede RFC 15s KO:TBC but it’s obviously away.

That’s it for this week

#UTT

Jez