Hi chaps
What a splendid game last Sat against Osterley and a very fine win of 26 points to 24!!
A game of two distinct halves. The first half and the first minute when Osterley caught the ball and came straight at us and scored under the posts did not bode well for us.!
It did take us a full half before we came to grips with the game....Osterley scored three more tries in the first half inspite of some good covering and defensive work but somehow they managed to make that final effort and found the odd gaps here and there. It was good to see Dave Uffandel back and with Dan and Clarkie in the back row the output was very high. Lineout seemed OK up to a point but whilst we won the ball we did not take it cleanly and the result was poor ball to Jeff at scrum half.
The immensity of the tackling is highly illustrated in Tony's photos of the game as attached....Tom Wood's shots really sum up the whole scene.....the one that got away!!
The second half was a complete turnaround....a few tactical changes and we suddenley see ourselves scoring try after try ...the first one was a good hard drive by Simon this was followed by Deano's try then a nifty support on by Alex and finally Dave bagged on under the posts...The result A WIN BY 26 points to 24 and all hanging on Roger's conversion of Dave' s last minute try!! It was good to see Matt having a very strong second half in the pack and his storming breaks went down well....Clarkie and Roger at centre did much to move three ball around the park and to create score trying opportunities. Dan had his usual cracking game and was a worthy winner of the Man of the Match Award......again a very difficult decision as everyone played well
Sorry this report is short chaps but the attached photo report illustrates the game so well.
Christmas lunch:
Good well attended lunch at The Britannia with Chris looking after us very well ...BUT the start of the day has to be our new found drinking champion Basil!!
In
addition to telling a fair number of jokes after the lunch Basil also added
extra spice to the day with his obvious love of Guinness and in fact anything
that was alcoholic
Simon got the hang of this and a book was opened up on Basil to see when
he would crash out....the book started at 6;00 and then in 10 min sections
up to 8;30....
BASIL and Dan won £24 as he had the last time at 8;30 on Basil!!
But the tale does not end there. I drove Basil home with Tom and Basil was looking pretty good....walking quite well and not even shooting tigers...we did leave the back seat window open just in case!!
We arrived at Basil's home and I asked Tom to get him out whilst I knocked door. Basil mother Claire answered the door and I started to explain that Basil was fine in good shape but a little under the weather. However, Claire's face was thunder and also said "what has happened to him" in a very startled way. I could not understand this as Basil was just behind me BUT when I turned round I faced Basil covered in blood...a bleeding nose blood over his shirt on the ground and over Tom's shirt as well!
This all happened in less than a few yards because when I had left him in the car he was fine.....apparently according to our man Tom, Basil just fell out of the car!!
Basil is on the mend but his nose is a different shape but looking forward to being lifted in the lineout which apparently is the ploy that was being discussed
NEXT GAME SAT 8TH JAN
CHRISTMAS EVE GET TOGETHER AT THE WHITE SWAN....try and call in for a Christmas
drink and meet a few friends.....
Have a good Christmas and Happy new Year
Colin / Tony