Yield Curve……gently rising?

For those of you who don’t know him, (which in itself is arguably something missing from your life), he is a stalwart athlete who I can build my playing side around…..more later!

I type, (slowly) these notes reflecting on the build up to our fixture, the encounter and the post match drinks, much later into Sunday night than I would have expected, though the delights of enjoying maison lejaby finest turquoise have kept me detained! Clappy I do hope I haven’t kept you waiting too long!?

It will be no surprise to you learn that our much anticipated league fixture with Dorking was lost late on Thursday night, yet operation St Bernard was sprung into action in the Graham household starting with Gus carefully putting Sky Plus on pause….a quick debrief with our fixtures secretary and Mrs Graham had it all under control, including the Sky Plus control which was confiscated!

By Friday mid morning a great opponent in Kingston 2s was found and the majority of their squad made themselves available, though I subsequently learnt a few Kingston players had to pull out because Barnes was an away fixture! Chaps…Barnes not Barnsley!
Sadly no sooner had the fixture been confirmed Clappy emailed me some devastating news that caused me to have to throw away the team sheet, game plan, new newer line out calls and basically start again……no Clappy……no easy game……..Skips cancelled Friday work commitments, put the phones on divert and pondered……..!

40 miles away Marek and Si Curran, our new Nutritionist coach, were getting stuck into to some fine steak for their Friday lunch all washed down with a few bottles of wine…..pre match preparation Vets style. The arrival of their photo evidencing this gourmet indulgence brought an end to my pondering and a realisation that without Clappy, we still might have a chance, and we could still possibly field a side of committed athletes and take on the youthful Kingston!

Saturday morning rain was briskly blown away and made way for a beautiful warm and sunny afternoon with excellent pitches to play on. Indeed a perfect opportunity for me to salute the immensely supportive team of grounds people c/o Wandsworth BC who make our match days possible and so especially enjoyable……..hey Mr G!

The changing room had a good vibe, lots of banter and stories of bravado about who did what to who and much she……….err or was it ‘he’ enjoyed it!!! Not sure! But as I looked around it dawned on me something wasn’t quite right, something was missing……..faithful four……..yeap, the No 4 shirt wasn’t being worn by Clappy…………Clappy was not there!

Worst still the 3s were in need of players and it seemed only fair that one of our younger Vets…….well ok youngest vet…………., err ok, youngest ever Vet……….ok younger than the average age by X=-44/2+2=? Never mind……..Aaron thanks for helping the 3s out!
And worst still Kingston were already out on the pitch training, doing line out moves and other patterns………..!

From the kick off we received the ball and straight away, attacked by sending the ball wide with Springy relishing the slim fit No 9 shirt! And that my friend’s is pretty much it…………!!

Alright, its 11pm and this match report must be posted tonight as Clappy won’t sleep otherwise!

Kingston were a good oppo and capitalised on a very neat interception for their first try and some sloppy Vets errors let in their second try and in fairness their youth had us all pretty shattered by the end of the game. There was talk pre-match of them fielding a young inexperienced front row, yet the three Lord of the Rings characters, (and I am being polite), facing me and my fellow good looking team mates, (Marty, JC…I am again being polite!!), didn’t look that in-experienced.

In fact in the lineout, ruck and maul, Kingston offered us a good scrap; all the more reason, (and in the absence of Clappy) to send it wide, which we did to good effect. Without giving our game plan away, its clear if we keep doing what we do and more of it, plus a bit more of that, and on occasions lots of this, more often than not we should achieve plenty of that type of ball and win!!!
A great spirited game and much appreciation to Kingston for making it happen.

My man of the match would have obviously gone to Clappy, but as Rich Beanie was wearing the No 4 shirt, he deserved it………outstanding play Beans!

A few drinks were had by all afterwards and some lovely Chilli – thanks Zoe! Skips injured leg didn’t in anyway impede upon performance later as of course one of the great benefits of an automatic is you can simply put it in drive and sit back and enjoy the ride……..its a long journey going down the A3!

I think a toast was also made to absent friends now up in Yorkshire, but I am sure Gundog will soon be down to shatter the peace and bring his boots!

The side that played was:
Marty
JC
Finch
Rob
Dean
Mozza
Beans
Russ
Nicky B
Springy
Marek
Dave K
Jose
Pini
Stu
Slatts
Nick
Will
Mark

Tries: Nicky B, Slatts, Stu, Jose, Springy x2
Cons: Marek x2

Next week we are home to our first key League fixture to Cobham and this for many reasons has to be a win!!!
Finch/Skips…..
12.10.14