Thanks Mum!

It’s been a busy few weeks and before you know it the season end seems to have crept up upon us far too soon and it’s a pity fixtures can’t be fulfilled where some Clubs struggle to pull a side together. We have nearly fallen victim to that especially with the Vets blessed with an array of corporate high flyers circumnavigating the Globe in a quest to achieve the elusive and often impossible annual bonus target! Skips on the other hand has started to brush up on the etiquette associated with Camel Beauty competitions in order to find favour with my hosts in Saudi where recently I had to explain to the chauffer the correct way to hold the steering wheel! The polarised cultural values which leave often very beautiful women shrouded in black while husbands marvel at the Camels……bit like backs and forwards I suppose, is most unusual!

With some forward planning we had half a side pencilled in by Monday and the prospect of more sunshine, daffodils and early morning chorus encouraged a number of players to make them self available.

Interestingly, I think there must be a case of some sleep walking amongst our brethren!! On Tuesday Martin Glanville sent me a highly committed email to make his first appearance for the Vets having been on Skips, ‘talent spotting list’ for two years. A quick exchange of emails and the deal was done with a new shirt on order! By Wednesday Martin must had checked his sent items and realised he couldn’t possibly have consciously sent the emails as he still had further family commitments, meaning the boots had to stay in the under stairs cupboard beneath his pilates kit bag! Your time will come Mr G!

Come Thursday we had a full side with a few new names, (the fair weather rugby players amongst you know who you are!) which is always great to see. Friday banter on the email seemed quiet other than the usual Welsh lamb bleat from Jose…….. “Rich I play 12 not 13”,….. or was it 13 not 12 ?…..not sure really, but it doesn’t really matter!!

Skips was entertaining Friday night so an early start was needed on Saturday morning to get the kit sorted, water bottles filled and obviously tend to the balls! There has recently been much public commentary on the way in which I look after the balls, so to dispel any myths I though I would set the record straight!!

I normally run them under cold water and prefer to use the sink than the shower, especially to get a good grip on them and scrub them briskly with, preferably, the floor scrubbing brush, (I used to use the nail brush but it took for an age)! Thankfully I only have two balls to clean so it doesn’t take long to get them back to looking near new again. I then tend to leave them out for a bit to dry, normally whilst watching a bit of Super 15 and having a coffee. Once dry they are safely packed away until I let the guys get to them and normally it’s Jose who tends to grab the firmer newer looking one, but more on that another day…….

As many of you know, we are a humble Club and often visit other clubs and marvel at their facilities; Old Albanians club house, Quins changing rooms at St Mary’s the bar at Richmond, to name a few. Yet on this occasion its Old Cranleighans recruitment campaign I really admire and its great to see such an established Club do so well in attracting great players to the warmth and vibrancy of its playing spirit. Indeed I was worried mid week as I received a most carefully scripted email from OC’s suggesting they mat be short on numbers. However, the early morning bird song must have worked for them too as on the day I am sure I counted well over 20 athletes emerge on to the pitch – late!

Old Cranesherleighans Chief Marshall won the toss (as I had expected) and chose to play with the wind and for us to kick to them. We did kick to them and then that’s when things started to go wrong…….
We were still asleep and from the start were forced to chase OeC around the park and in essence play like Turkeys on Christmas Eve………pandemonium! Even Jose wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be running at 13 and for the first few minutes we just were not there.

The first scrum perhaps settled us slightly, but our work up front was going to be very tricky against a much larger pack and so there was little prospect of clean ball (despite the earlier scrubbing) coming our way and Lord Price knew that the ref had no chance of seeing his foot up and so you make do with what you can get! I must say thank Marty who is a hooker and has played at 1 on a few occasions now as his effort has been immense, if he didn’t do what he does we would have un-contested games. You all owe Marty a pint at least!

OeC put lots of phases together and ran the ball hard at us, we fell off tackles too easily and they recycled the ball at speed all leading to an early try. We re-grouped, ranted a bit at each other and went back for some more, but we simply couldn’t find our form.

In the lineout Tom Berry did a great job along with Gundog giving us some other options, but we weren’t always able to covert our own ball in to hard yards. Frustrations started to seep in and whilst we did somehow manage to score a try and feel there was some parity it didn’t last long, quite simply because this was a well drilled OeC side and they wanted this game more than we did. OeC went over for a few more tries capitalising on our mistakes.

We were 22 – 5 down and it was half time!

Jonny had taken more hits to his head, Beney was a warrior and took a beating for it, others were carrying injuries, new recruits Gareth and Kevin didn’t know what had just hit them, sometimes its not to be……….?
But Harrodians Vets are not fazed that easily!!

Yet again we were not the strongest team on paper and were certainly smaller man for man in stature perhaps, but not in spirit or character, or even in belief…….no……we were stronger as a 15.

And that’s all that changed.

We played with a much greater degree of determination and passion; we ran the ball at them and found those important off loads, we played with some urgency and no sooner had a few phases come together we scored.

Pride was cascading back in and belief bellowed across the pitch. We tackled, we competed for the ball and on occasions we turned over the ball!

OeC did not lie down but they did start to tire just a little allowing for our fitness and new found urgency to be difficult to counter. The ref also took a leaf out of our book and up’d his game too! I’ve said it before, but when we win our ball and unleash our back line we really do have the ability to beat anyone on the day – it’s just an attitude thing.

I salute Tony Price for pulling together and excellent ‘barbarian’ style OeC and for the spirited and exceptionally skilled way they played and I especially thank Tony for helping Harrodians discover what we often leave in the changing room…..passion!

I trust you have all thanked your Mothers, in a way appropriate to you, for buying you your first pair of rugby boots and awakening a passion for a game which never fades!

The side that played was:

1 Marty
2 JC
3 Finche
4 Beney
5 Jonny
6 Tom Berry
7 Gareth Walmsley
8 Gun dog
9 Gus
10 Marek
11 Stu Osborne
12 Morgs
13 Jose
14 Pini
15 Dizzy
16 Slats
17 Si Curran
18 Kevin Keay

Tries: Gundog, Pini, Jose, Stu
Cons: Marek x 2

Skips 30.03.14