The start of the season was a fraught one for the last few days of the week.

The pitches at Marble Hill had been double booked . The ref was booked for a home game. The shirts had not arrived so we had no shirts. The standby shirts from the pub had gone missing! The opposition had been booked in for a home game...shall we carry on......and we had 18 confirmed players.

Iron Man Tony and myself took stock of the situation. You guys wanted the game and it was upto to do our part.

We moved the fixture to an away game at Teddington.The ref. was cancelled and I went into the loft to find some old Bulldog shirts. Rescued situation but it was a dodgy couple of days at the end of the week!

O.K. so we all left The White Swan and headed down to play Teddington in Bushy Park.

We knew it was going to be a tough one as they were all changed and training ...not a good start for our first game!

They had 5 subs.

At least we had 18 shirts and they were all red....

We kicked off and within the first 5 mins Jamie collected the ball and then smiled at his wife and son on the touchline and headed flat out and banged down a superb try under the posts what a start. Roger converted and off we went again. A few minute later Jamie caught another ball found South African Pete who was in top gear on his shoulder and he passed to him, Pete ran out of steam but again Wild man Tom Woodsie was right up his backside and took a pass and then charged up field to find Steve in full flight waiting for the pass. Passed came from Woodsie and Steve banged down another try. Roger then converted and completed this electrifying display of Bulldog interplay.

However, the well experienced Teddington side with four game sunder their belt came back with a vengeance and started to put on a few tries.

Big Bull Mark made some forward forages, Stuart put in some good tackles and Roger's boot relieved the pressure but at the end of the day it was our first game and we did very well. The touchline support was very good and Iron Man and myself looked very carefully at changing a few positions at half time. Matt had been kicked in the back ands was struggling, and a few others were looking quite knackered after a very fast first half!

At half time we reviewed the position and whilst the half time pep talk was going on Tony had put his Ironman shirt on the team's trainee dog mascot , Max, who then proceeded to belt around the field and into the half time chat. Max then stopped in front of the ref who like was creasing himself with laughter!

Second half went on and also the subs...we had two new players , Martin and James who both played well. James said he was an outside so we put him in the scrum and as one of the jumpers. Usual Bulldog approach. They both did well.

JT ran in a fantastic solo effort and another try went and right until the last minute we were putting the tackles in and trying to score....a very good effort

The final pressure of having to play against 5 new players and all young took its toll an d a few tries came through and we lost by around 15 points...19 to 33 BUT a first class effort.

Iron Man Tony suggested that we did not award a Man of the Match as everyone had put in so much effort and we decided to award Men of the Match to the whole team

A few pints later and it was back to the Swan for a few drinks. Unfortunately, a few could not make it ....Iron man, Dave U and a few others but this week we are at home to London French and there will be a Man of the Match award. This ill be made in the White swan after the game...I think Tony will be making this presentation.