Old score settled........!!!

So a belated happy New Year from Skips who has been busy preparing for Valentines Day, (traditionally a day in the year when the Post man swaps his bicycle for a Van when delivering to me!), however 10cc won’t be entertaining any such begging mail this year!!

So firstly my huge sincere thanks to Gus who, as expected, has looked after our busy fixture schedule of ‘flooded pitch’ cancellations exceptionally well and like wise to Jonny, our esteemed Vice Captain who has continued to excel at doing what he always does so so well………nothing!

Having said that we were ever so lucky to have a break in the weather and the sun shone upon Barn Elms on Saturday afternoon in Biblical style. Indeed we were so fortunate our pitches and sumptuous changing facilities are carefully and lovingly looked after by Wandsworth BC, who despite further cut backs, had ensured our pitch was in perfect condition. I think they had specially drained the pitch with the Tractor being used and cleaned it up of all the Goose s**t from the birds who drop their ‘load’ before landing at the Wetland Centre!!

Earlier in the week we only had seven players confirmed, but a rallying call to arms took that rapidly to probably the best ever squad attendance with 21 of us. I even received a personal email from the Club’s venerable Chairman’s personal fitness coach, who asked if his ‘favourite training client could have a run out for 30 mins or so, as it would be a useful compliment to his current training regime’!

With atrocious weather throughout Friday I was contemplating Plan ‘B’ for Saturday afternoon; that would probably have taken the form of another intense practise session in the studio singing with the 10cc Tribute band!
Alas it was not to be and before I could hang the last socks out, keen Veterans of all shapes and sizes arrived on the dot at 1300, as requested. Not Splints though………no….Splints likes spending time on the M25, arriving late, wearing another team’s kit yet still performs at 110%! Always take your time Tim, you play better when late!

The other people who were late were indeed Farnham which gave us plenty of time to put in an effective warm up without any injuries and Rhino was able to prove that you don’t just need ten pints of Guinness to be able to bend over!

A reasonably largish looking Farnham did eventually saunter across to the pitch and a slightly delayed kick off got us going with us kicking into a persistently swirly wind.

Within a few minutes a lack of discipline on our part at the breakdown gave Farnham the opportunity to kick a penalty in order to go 3 points up. As ever we seem to wake up slowly and eventually did.

Now don’t let the score margin suggest that this was an easy match – it wasn’t. Farnham put in a good performance and made us work very hard for the trys we scored. In particular at the ruck they certainly turned over a lot of our ball in the first half. Though despite some useful phases Farnham simply couldn’t finish off their moves and much of that goes down to our defensive work.

Where we did excel was in the lineouts and from that we created a few trys from some very effective driving mauls, despite Farnham being bigger man for man. Scrums were evenly contested and some traditional sledging in the front row had Skips likened to a Jack Russell with a small d**k!!!! Hmmmmm……so not true…..well not all of it!

Our backs as usual were made to look good by the forwards doing the hard work up front and that’s exactly how it should be. Forward play needs to build a foundation from which we launch a fanfare of moves which, when worked properly, can be very hard for even the best of oppositions to defend. Ironically, the right ‘foundation’ was a reoccurring theme of discussion late into the early hours of Sunday morning and I have it on good authority that the new ‘foundation’ range from 'Channel' is much better than the Lancôme foundation and a damn site more expensive too!!!!

There were too many of us that played well for me to single out one particular player and its more fitting to reflect on the genuine team effort in the second half particularly defensively when for a few spells Farnham threw a useful string of attacks together and the guys stepped up to the mark and defended gallantly.
It’s that team work which we will very much depend upon in some of our upcoming fixtures and thus I do want to thank new , (young looking vet) Conor, who we couldn’t get on the pitch for a run out but who supported us as a squad which is what Vets rugby is all about…..each other.

Farnham played with Great Spirit and I am really grateful for them being able to make the fixture happen, you are warmly welcome back at Barnes in the future.

On which point…Note, there are only nine more fixtures till the end of season and each and every one of them is a must win game if we are to have improved upon last year – that is ‘our’ goal.

Next week we are at home to Camberley and another big squad will be needed to take them on effectively.

The side that played was:

1 Rhino
2 Mozza
3 Skips
4 Beney
5 Clappy
6 Gibbo
7 Josh
8 Sean L

9 Gus
10 Marek
11 Si Curran
12 Morgs
13 Springy
14 Dizzy
15 Slats

Res:
Jerry G
Marty
Jonny
Dave K
Jose
Barney
Conor

Scores:

Trys to
Josh, Dave K, Marek, Morgs, Splints, Barney and Slats
Coversions: Marek x4, but it was windy!!

Have a great week!!!
Skips/Finche/Rich