Straight into Rugby this week and last weekend’s game against Lytchett Minster in the Papa John cup… Just a good old fashioned cup game, in my opinion, the opposition came by bus and they were there early so the supporters, decked in silly coloured club blazers, went straight to the bar and I think I’m right in saying, that one of them had decided to make it his “stag doo” as well. Being polite, he looked just a tad over 60 if he was a day, so I’m assuming it was at least his second time around. Corrie was concerned we didn’t have enough Guinness and that was at 2pm. Now, re the blazers…. I actually liked them and thought that we maybe could do a Ton one. As far as I know, I think Tim Denne and Stopper have in the past had one made and they looked very dapper ….mind we would be very loud in red, black and amber “deck chairs” stripes … hey ho, would be a talking point though.

As for the game…. what a cracker! The sun turned up and we crucially played up the hill in the first half. Our visitors threw the kitchen sink at us and I must say, when we turned round 7 points down, I think you’d say we’d worked hard to keep them out, especially as we were under the cosh in the scrum department as well. The first half defensive set must not be underestimated and was the key to the game and having hung on for 40 minutes, turning around, you just felt we were starting to get the edge but it was still nip n’ tuck. We clawed our way back into the game and on the 60 minute mark we went ahead for the first time. Then as their big boilers tired and their heads dropped, we changed gear and powered home but it was anything but an easy win and let’s not forget two last ditch try saving tackles from our full back. A 38-19 score line looks like being convincing win but we scored two tries in the last 4 minutes so it was close and a great game to watch. I was wondering if it might have been a different story if we’d come down the hill first!? The opposition were magnanimous in defeat and everyone adjourned to the bar for quaffing and tomfoolery. Lovely atmosphere in the bar afterwards and the “Stag” was last seen heavily propping up the” best man” up as they staggered to the bus. Reminded me of the good old days of fun, grass roots rugby. Hey ho I must stop living in the past.

Sunday weather stayed fair and rugby was enjoyed by our junior department. The sevens were up against a well drilled Newton Abbot side but got stuck in amongst them, the POM’s as we now say were Eli and Dylan. The ten at NA were half asleep at the start and went several tries down and they had a couple of big players to say the least but they dug deep, pulled things round and powered home. Must mention Tom Vallender who scored 8 tries but it was Grace Rich who won the POM award for a very impressive performance. Our strong 8’s did the biz again and beat NA on aggregate, Kian was their POM in their three mini games. The 11’s played Sidmuff at the fortress and it was a right old ding dong but they piped then by 11-10. 9‘s played NA at home and had three excellent games, Joe, William B and Willy G were mentioned in dispatches.

Sunday afternoon I watched the Chiefs game… oh dear! and once again my fears for next year were all on display… thrashed but again a red card spoiled the game… and I see Nolsy has been fined £10 for criticising the ref on Twitter! I watch the incident several times and just don’t get it!

On to the week… we’ve rented the club out to a group doing “back to work” courses and they have been very pleased with it. If you know anyone looking to do this sort of thing we are open for hiring, especially as we draw the season to an end and the place is empty.

Had a nice gift this week, one of my early morning swimming chums gave me an envelope and said she was part of the Summer darts league which has sadly been wound up . She said they had a few coffers in the bank account and wanted to give it to local clubs. I said thanks and when I got home, what a surprise! Two hundred wonga! So big thanks to them, mucho appreciated. And again big thanks to another loyal supported, Steve Petit (you know feller with the long hair and big beard) he presented me with his annual big heavy bag of change which Michael counted for us and informed me it was £145 so again big thanks and as I say all this sort of stuff keeps us afloat.

Ok…. so what is on this weekend, well…as mentioned last week, you will note, our season is now not over and what this means is we are now in the quarter finals but unfortunately for us it’s an away draw and it’s in the “arse end of Gloucester” (can I say that?) … unfortunately because this cup is so well organised, we just don’t get the opposition info until Monday night, which means we have not been able to get a bus company to take us, so we have a players mini bus and were hoping the loyal few, can make the trip to support. Now it’s against Hucclecote but the match it’s not at Hucclecote’s ground but down the road on a 4G pitch at a place called Oxtalls. KO off is at 3pm. Hope you can make the trip and do remember it’s the M5 on a Saturday so allow time. Obviously again the winners will march on to the semi-final and the losers finish their “proper season”. I might add we have a tour weekend the week after and we’re hoping if we win this weekend it doesn’t clash!! We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it. As we are within two games of this final it’s worth mentioning it will be played at Sarries ground in London (have I mentioned this?) so might be another great day out.

Sunday Juniors are still going strong and it’s festival day for many of our sides. The 7 & 8’s are in Ivybridge at their festival, the 9’s have a home game against Topsham, 10’s are away at opsham, the 11’s have a festival at Kingsbridge and the12 are at one in Devonort and the 13’s are at home to Taunton.

That’s it

Keep taking the tablets

#UTT

Jez