“BRACE BRACE BRACE”.......

Starring at the screen for what seems like an eternity.

Hmmmm........

The keyboard looks interesting...... I wonder why @€ are on the same key as 2 and why are £# on 3 and not the other way around.....and what’s 1 done to deserve ! only!!?
Then the engine room of 4 is a $ and 5 a %......that’s a mismatch! Behind them are the movers and shakers of the pack......6 is ^ 7 is & and 8 is *......all distinguished roles!
But alas there is one back that made it on to the keyboard.......9 is (.....which in the office is (open brackets), but on the paddock its a gobby little shyster!

What else can I ponder over, what else can I do to avoid facing the truth?

Got it!

QWERTYUIOP
ASDFGHJKL
ZXCVBNM

Arrrrrrggghhhhh!!!!! Sod it!!!!

We lost.

We lost and I haven’t felt that feeling in the Vets jersey for over 19 months, we came crashing down with a thump and it bloody well hurts!!!

So let’s look back over the last eight days a period with two games, two very different games, different results and different lessons.

However, before we do so let me share some good news with you.

Si Currant reached out to me very recently seeking some suggestions for a fund-raising charity, so kindhearted Skips blocked out 4 mins in my diary to chat it over!
Discounting the usual committed efforts of marathons, Alpine cycles or 3 Peaks for obvious reasons, we ended up scratching around at an all-night knitting challenge! Bummer though, he’d done that before and was disqualified!
Eureka!
Skips grey matter kicked in and the following was agreed upon.

All the Current Barnes stash wardrobe is to be (a) modelled by him at the Club on the 14th Dec, (b) auctioned off either as individual items or a set, (c) all the proceeds go to Atlas Foundation as do all the garments in question, (after a thorough wash).
The benefits:
• Atlas: cash & stash
• The Club: a good laugh and no more frigging Si-selfies on wattsapp
• Curren: the opportunity to earn some kit by playing regularly

Of Course as I look at number 1 on the keyboard my conscience kicks in and of course Si is oblivious to this, (much as we are of him when he’s on the pitch!), but now the idea is in the public domain; what’s not to like!!
Over you good people - the mob - to vie for his wardrobe!!!

So of course the rugby World Cup has been and gone and we witnessed a final of two sides, one which played and with pride representing their country dutifully and the other which played with utter selflessness for every single corner of their people, home towns, villages and families reminding us yet again how rugby arguably stands head and shoulders above any other sport bringing people together and there probably isn’t any other country better deserving of it. Well done Suid-Afrika!

Such a brilliant tournament kept us well away from any fixtures and with a late cancellation on the 9th Nov we had to get a fixture in on the following weekend.
As it happened the Barnes RFC ‘One Club’ mantra continues to be driven impressively at the Junior & Mini’s end where on Friday night under Rosslyn Park floodlights, they regularly host hugely successful events engaging with the wider community and local schools where rugby is absent from the curriculum. Thus, an absolutely horrendous rain soaked cold windy evening (and a thousand kids running around) on 4G was our stage to encounter the little unknown Wasps

Taff the ref was also a little unknown to us, as he was, as it transpired, to some of the great offers on at Spec Savers!

We were somewhat light on numbers (YET AGAIN !!!), but thankfully four brilliant guys from the Occies juggled Friday drinking and debauchery commitments (their Sat game cancelled), to join us. HUGE genuine thanks to Sam, Rory, Jimmy and Luke!

We also had much mentioned new boy in Shola Adeniran run out for his first of many Vets fixtures, (though I did say that of Rolsey in his first (and only) fixture for us SEVEN weeks ago v Esher, where he sadly hurt his thumb!!), a very useful unit - think only a very slightly smaller Siya Kolisi, very slightly!!!
What JC hadn’t told us about Shola was that not only could he play rugby very well, but he also liked and early shower!

Anyway, we did get the game under the way and a very lively Wasps side wanted to run the ball and make good use of the wide pitch, but our defence started out and continued for the evening to remain dominant.

Scrums we held our own and Rory and Jimmy in the engine room were sublime; so, go forward we did and Shola, Codo and Timmy W had great ball to work with. But the weather continued to play havoc and so hard to see the high ball in flood lights when the rain is horizontal. Indeed yours truly for some bizarre reason found myself chasing and catching a high ball; for a moment it was just like the 1 minute past 02:30 am Night Club (Swansea - in the 90’s) scene when the DJ is done and the main lights come on - and you realise what Bethan looks like! God help me......I thought.....don’t drop this Skips.......Mace is watching you.......thank F!@k......I caught it!

We kept Wasps well out of the game, again giving our backs great ball from an imperious Jimmy and Shola in the line-out and from that at some stage we scored and scored again....19 points in total! Sadly, though Wasps had a few younger guys they were keen to get on; either close relatives of Trevor Leota or oblivious to the idea of the game! What with Shola being taken off injured - how could that be - Codo taken a huge forearm hit to his jaw and finally Morgs dumped dangerously, Skips called the game off perhaps with 15 mins to go. Hugely valuable players taken out for six weeks of so could prove to be our Achilles heel!

The mood in the changing room afterwards was jovial, Shola had got in for an early shower and with a 19:0 win we were happy, Morgs had no idea how he had got to work that morning, Hamilton had no idea how he had played so much rugby in one match and Curran never once stopped going on and on and on about scoring a try! Shola was still enjoying the shower; Jose was delirious he had played hooker (uncontested scrums) and Boko was just cracking up all the time. Most of us pushed on for a few beers and some pizza for a good chat with the oppo, the ref we sent to Spec Savers and Shoola eventually came out of the shower with a sore head and a lift home!

It was an odd game and not the best preparation for Guildford........!!!

In fact, there was no preparation for Guildford, we didn’t even know if we could field a side until Thursday 9pm as we only had 16 players, two from another Club and one from our Summer Touch database!!!

The bottom line is for the first 15 minutes we allowed Guildford to dictate the game and they put on an impressive display attacking us from every angle with real pace!
Two converted tries and a penalty we were 17:0 down and there was no driving rain, wind, cold, half blind ref or Leota’s to blame; there was just us!
We soon fixed the ‘us’ and started to get in to the game and closed Guildford out keeping them out and defending well. In the second half we changed our attacking play with much more ‘pick and go’ ball and started to rattle them, in fact their Capt at No 2 took ten mins yellow rest and we capitalised with immense work rate from Harris keeping us in the game with a try, but too far out for Mace to convert.

In fact, had the Ref had a real good look James did get over for another try when he was ‘shoved over the line by the pack’ but not given. We held our own in the scrums, but yours truly very uncomfortable at No 2 struggled to deliver any clean ball; how badly do we need a Hooker under age 50!
Lineouts and all out work rate from Sean Gibson (PLEASE PLAY MORE!!!!) had him down as Guildford’s man of the match.
One could argue we dominated the second half and Guildford never really got into our half; but they too defended right to the bitter end.

We certainly put in a gutsy performance, but you can’t rock up to Guildford RFC on a Friday night with some newbies hoping to win! They won fairly and played really well with some new faces taking to Vets rugby with ease! Likewise, their hospitality afterwards was second to none and that’s why this Club and fixture will always rank as a favourite for both Clubs.

A special mention of gratitude and massive respect to Jason & Fabien who came over from Effingham to run out for us; that’s not an easy thing to do, to simply walk in to a changing room of complete strangers where all the banter is flying around and muck in; but they did just that - THANK YOU.

And thank you to Rachel our amazing Physio who is always calm when we are flat out cold - regularly... and to Nick Hamilton for putting up with me and of course Richie Mayson who lead us all the way very much from the front.

After proceedings about eight of us slipped away for a Curry and it all started to feel a bit better, or did it?

To lose is a hard thing to take especially when you may not have experienced it for some time; I guess thats how the AB felt after England dismantled them, the changing room, the journey home, the airport, back to family and friends; the constant reference to that ‘loss’ that ‘disappointment’?

As I stood in the bathroom, 1AM looking into the mirror I asked Skips - what you going to do, what’s the difference, 19 mths of winning and its ended, go find some perspective, I thought to myself!

There must be some Kieran Reed quotes/stories out there, (and no.....Skips is not drawing a parallel, just a source of wisdom), but it wasn’t an AB Captain that brought me back to reality it was Tom Smiths interview, I listened again quietly with a lump......

Nearly 50 and still privileged to be playing and with my health (God wiling) always at £# and sometimes at ! and on occasions at @€, oh how I would love to learn to pass right and maybe even play at !@€........

We all have so much to be grateful for and we owe this wonderful game so much - thank you Guildford for helping me recalibrate and get set to go again!

The sixteen brilliant players:

1 Richard BENEY
2 Rich FENECH
3 Mark EASTERLY

4 Boris POMROY
5 Sean GIBSON

6 Dean STANFORD
7 Chris CODO
8 James HARRIS

9 Angus GRAHAM
10 Marek PRZYCHOCKI

11 Will BOND
12 Jose FERNANDEZ
13 Richard MAYSON (Capt)
14 Fabien GATERCOLE

15 Jason EVANS
16 Nick HAMILTON

Next week we are at last at home for the first time this seaosn to Farnham - bring it on!

Skips/Finche
finch2s@yahoo.co.uk