There is no 'I' in team.....

It's easy to tell when the eminent Clappy has given his PA a week off....
a) he replies 'available' to a fixture request thinking it was a dinner invite
b) he drives to Farnham as this 'perceived' away fixture suits him!

Anyway more about our Home game v Farnham Vets in a moment!

Welcome fellow players and Barnes supporters!
This is the last note from me as our formal season closes out with all league matches concluded, leaving us firmly third place behind Richmond and Guildford!
More work to be done over the summer clearly!

It's been a long season yet March has crept up upon us quickly and oddly enough I still don't feel we ever git into our stride, but that could simply be because the standard of rugby which we now play and the overall quality of the opponents has increased considerably.

It's on this point I wish to deviate slightly and use my self appointed 'soap box' to recognise an aspect of the Club close to my heart.
Others better placed than me will applaud the huge success's of the 1s, Development, Occies and Babas, not to mention the wonderful Ladies and Minis.
Yet it's the arduous efforts of the 2s who have had a successful campaign in Canterbury Shield Division 1, which is by far one of the hardest levels of non 1st team rugby to play at.
The Vets don't often cross over with the 2s for obvious reasons, but nothing would give us more delight than to have road trip away....Vets and 2s playing away, with us kicking off early to support them afterwards.
That's one of my objectives for the 15/16 season!
2s take a bow because your Club is immensely proud of you.

We are also immensely proud of our own Lieutenant in the shape or Gus Graham who has served the Club and Vets with immense loyalty, passion and commitment.
Gus has decided to hang his boots up and has told his amazing wife, Jane, that he's got a bad back! But Jane he told us all that the new Volvo has been chosen as it will hold all his Golf Clubs with ease!
Just like Jeremy Ckarkson, I am sure Gus will be back for the odd tempting run out!
Gus thank you for everything you have done for the Vets and the Club, you will be missed....well for a few weeks anyway!

And so to our final league fixture, which we must thank Farnham for.
They have sadly lost a number of players to injury recently so needed to bring up some of their younger lads to fill the gaps.......about 10 gaps I reckon!

We were out of the blocks quite quickly and with a very firm pitch it meant a running game was good and a scrummaging game was not really on!
Lineouts were excellent though and Sean Gibson continues to excel.

What we did do really well was ruck and from that produced some very quick ball, which Gus in the main passed to some very quick runners who also passed it to other quick runners and we scored! Why on earth it's taken us 7 months to realise this is behind me?
Oh and Slatts.....outstanding try!

We did have some interesting fun on the loose head side of the scrum when Marty was becoming infuriated by the very young opposition tight head Prop who found it difficult to bind and shove his head in the right place, despite offers from Marty of where he should shove it!!
A little later the mighty Jerry came on to relieve Marty of his frustrations and packed down against new kid in the block......think Humpty Dumpty........anyway Jerry lost the plot within seconds and started to have a 'Jose' moment!

Now many of you might think I let this little escapade escape official reporting, but Jose being sent off the other week and going into a furry telling the ref he was a "useless ^}%>\€~€#^€\\>!|>~>€|€€\€~^'....." Was a classic!!

So back to Jerry blowing a gasket, yours truly moved across to the Loose head position to asses the situation!!!
As it was Humpty Dumpty was wearing a tight thin Jersey size medium when he really needed 3XL and so there was nothing to hang on to! Easy.....take him a bit lower and drive into his shoulder and not chest......some thing Jeff Probyn taught me years ago!

Normal scrummaging resumed and we played happily ever after!
We did let Farnham over the try line to score, but that's because we haven't yet discovered the killer instinct......we are simply too damned nice!
We are Harrodians, we are no more than a bunch of lads who haven't forgotten how much fun putting your body on the line for your team mates really is!

The team was:

Forwards: Jerry, Ed, Skips, Gibbo, Beans, JC, Deno, Nick B, Marty, Rob, Allen, Clappy, Robin Long.
Backs: Gus, Marek, Afer, Morgs, Russ, Jayden Wallis, Slatts, Nick H

Tries:
Morgs x4 Slatts x2, Afer, Jerry, Jayde X1
Conversions: Marek x4 Slatts X1

No game next week, but 11th April is a most massive Club day......please be there!

Finche/Skips