Pompoms & Pottery!

The words above are from a text sent by our beloved Jules in Oz to Spence……sublime!

The taxation of off shore funds seems to be a subject which has captured many people’s imagination this week and of course the lack of understanding of the nuances of withholding tax on the underlying investments and how this will vary on the asset type be it commodities, securities, equities or real-estate, all has an impact on the overall tax efficiency of the structure and of course you must take in consideration your own individual tax position in determining if you should include such a structure within your wider diversified portfolio……speak to my PA to arrange a call!!!!

However, if you were named Sean Gibson all of that would be wasted upon you!! Instead Sean Gibson was much more pre-occupied packing and re packing his posh trolley case trying to work out what essential items he should be bringing with him to a weekend pottery course in Scotland carefully arranged by the beautiful Mrs Gibson!

Sean Gibson couldn’t possibly have any time to contemplate the labyrinth of off-shore fund taxation, let alone sparing a thought that he, (arguably one of the best second rowers Harrodian Vets have ever had!!) might just need to check to see if the pottery tuition was clashing with Harrodian Vets final league game of the season v Farnham in order to decide the league championship.
Sean’s prodigy is the mighty Paul O’connell and when he heard the news he……..well see for yourself!

Stepping back a few weeks, it’s been a fairly quiet period with no matches for some time due to Easter and a number of Club engagements, namely the utterly amazing annual Barnes RFC City lunch which we are all deeply indebted to our Chairman Rhino for spear heading so passionately. Over 330 of us laughed in pain as Guest speaker Nigel Owens spent 30 minutes telling us what a complete and utter arxxxxxe Austin Healy was as well a cracking a few jokes!

And it’s on the subject of arxxxxxxe’s I wanted to address the Trump matter, which also will have evaded Sean Gibson, but as Trump most likely couldn’t hold a conversation on modern History with Al Murray (Pub Landlord) let alone serve in office I could let the arxxxxxe subject drop! However, there is always an update on the ‘Adventures of Ariston….Simon Curran who unlike Trump, could serve in office…..Council office in Hackney most probably! He too became distracted with important plans the beautiful Mrs Curran put in place which involved him making pompoms for a family celebration!

It’s clear that Skips needs to do a lot of work with the boys to help them get their priorities sorted for next season so that these sort of mistakes don’t reoccur again! Boys….rugby only requires about 22 weekends a year, the odd curry, a few late nights, a few road trips, maybe a wee weekend Tour and copious banter, so to balance that makes sure you do your fair share of errands at home……(“yes Darling I’m coming”!!!)

But before we look ahead to next season, this season couldn’t be concluded until the final whistle on Saturday v a very strong Farnham RFC.

When I stepped into the Clubs preferred dry cleaners on Friday evening to unusually collect our match kit the day before, the owner Geoff, looked at me slightly puzzled, but I knew this level of precision preparation would be essential to combat a strong Farnham side who were already playing mind tricks by emailing our fixtures secretary saying….’don’t arrive too early as we won’t be there till 2pm’!! Ah ha, as if I’m falling for that, so with enough bananas’ to feed a troop of monkeys I arrived at Farnham for 1pm!!!
Barren car park and not a sole in sight with the Club House locked I had to sit in the car for 20 mins waiting to be let in……….almost surreal like a scene out of Apocalypse Now…bastards weren’t kidding!

Soon after the door was unlocked and normal excessive preparations resumed…..the changing room was soon buzzing with a tense yet quietly confident atmosphere…….Duncan and Spring were late as expected and miraculously Cris Pini wasn’t!
Farnham RFC had no other fixtures so we took to the main pitch for our warm up and started to quickly find our form, especially seeing a few not so regular faces slot in perfectly, namely Spence, Horse, Springy and Matlock. Of course it was also a perfect day for Big Al to dominate in the lineout now that Sean Gibson had his hands full of clay!!!

Farnham had a deep squad and were keen to make sure they all got a run out and so having won the toss we kicked off and it was really nice of Matlock to help Farnham out with their desire to get as many players on the park as he demolished their tight head after two scrums and then sent the hooker off, both within minutes! Scene set!

We knew this game would come down to us being clinical, savvy and disciplined, though big match tensions meant we had thrown all that to one side and were actually stalling in second gear, constantly spilling the ball and resembling a scene from the Wombles high on meths with Orinoco wrestling his way out of crisp packet; as such we conceded a penalty early on and were now down 3:0!
Usual calm chat form yours truly gently reminding the chaps “THAT IT’S A BLOODY LEAGYE GAME!!”
We came back at a man for man much bigger Farnham side and started to open up the game, theyu were big but they would fall hard and we managed to dominate in certain phases, not least the lineout!

With no Sean Gibson hogging the ball all day, (remember the Irish wannabe O’Connell lock by now covered in sloppy clay!), Big Al was imperious and won so much ball and Spence was having a cracking game jumping at 4, in fact the whole pack were excellent! In the scrums we really snuffed out Farnham’s size and didn’t allow them to dominate.

With things taking shape the backs started to find form and with some good interlinking Russ Barnes, my dependable Vice Captain, ran in a great try right under their posts……20 mins in and it was 3:7 to us!

Farnham soon came back at us and finding a weakness in our defence went over to score a try and convert, but that just made us even more determined to close out the game!

We again came back at Farnham and stretched them wide with clever precise kicks from a goliath in Marek who was carrying a bad rib injury and the follow up from the likes of Jose, Morgs and Stacky was excellent…….time, patience and pressure, Farnham cracked and forced an error trying to spoil an almost guaranteed try and so the ref awarded us a penalty try…..half time and its 10:14 to us!
Director of Rugby, Judge, supreme Manager and jury….Gus endorsed everything I said and managed the bench to perfection with a composed half time chat……35 mins to go and the league was ours!

The second half was simply a gutsy battle by every single player, a real Barno Harrodian effort of steel, Farnham used their big guys to try and smash us, but we tackled bravely, especially Springy and Marek who were everywhere. In fact all the boys played with such determination that Farnham simply couldn’t break us.

With 15 mins to go we were awarded a penalty and at 10:17 all I wanted us to do was hold them out!
We did, we threw everything at it and left nothing in the tank, the boys were utterly awesome and I take nothing from Farnham who were a passionate and well organised side, but simply couldn’t cope with us.

We won!

We won a hard fought game against one of the biggest sides in the league and found the belief we often lack and it was a total squad effort and my especial recognition to the great guys in Payno, Marty, Frodo and Jerry who didn’t make it on to the pitch, but whose contribution throughout the season was invaluable.

The changing room was brimming with smiles and Farnham’s warm friendly and humble hospitality in their splendid Club House was testament to why they are such a great and rightly proud Club; I enjoyed a long chat with their Skipper discussing the merits of a bloody good Tour and indeed how our close rivals and friends in at Richmond RFC do it so well – Rome on Valentines….Sweet!
I’ve written it before, but will do so again….rugby was the winner today; two great sides battled it out fairly and then exchanged tales and stories over beer afterwards, friendships run deep in this sport and that’s why it’s an honour and a privilege to have led such an amazing group of players over the last 8 months.

Our season is now over and Skips has a list of errands as long as his arm to attend too….pretty dammed sharpish, not least to make the time for when my own personal Physio becomes Mrs Skips!

Skips/Finche
11.04.16

More photos courtesey of Farnham RFC - Thank you
http://www.farnhamrugby.org/photos/title-decider-vets-v-barnes-9-4-16-658664.html

The side that played was:

Matt JOHNSON
Yashar ASL
Richard FENECH
Dean PYE
Alasdair DAWSON
Paul SPENCER
Russell BARNES
Alex DAVEY

Tim SPRINGHALL
Marek PRZYCHOCKI
Cris PINI
Nick MORGANS
Luke STACK
Jose FERNANDEZ

James BARNARD

Jerry GILLESPIE
Martin SUTHERLAND
James CARLIN
Duncan MACIVER
Rob ALLEN
Nick BELLIS
Eddie DREW
Adam PAYNE