The first of many thanks goes to Adam Perrin for leading the charge in organising a hugely successful day. I think many under-appreciate how difficult it is to organise such a day with enormously tight timings, huge numbers and all sorts of contributing factors. So many thanks, Reggie.

On behalf of the senior set up, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to the Vets for lacing up their boots and coming down to put on a wonderful showcase. We are most grateful for your attendance and as a huge part of our club we welcome you back at any time. It was great to see people travelling from all different parts of the country to represent the OC’s. I hear Marc Jones travelled from a place called Nantwich in Cheshire – which i looked up, and the first thing that comes up is ‘What to do in Nantwich,’ believe you me there isn’t a lot. Whilst others, Darren Ramen, Gary Forge and Sam Keohane to name a few, we can’t seem to get rid of. And by the looks of the young Ramen’s and young Keohane, we probably won’t get rid of them for a long while. I can guarantee the future of Ruts is bright.

The match was played in a the truest of rugby spirits, with the Vets putting a try on the 2s early, showing great strength around the breakdown with some bruising runs. I wasn’t particularly interested in tackling Sam Keohane, to be honest. We fought back well and put two on them before half time, Jenks finishing off a fine move in the corner. Braddock was instrumental in this try and generally upon his return. Darren Ramen then put the vets over shortly into the second half with a well worked try in the corner, reaching over in fine fashion – a flash back to the glory days. In my opinion there is still some decent playing years left in him, maybe Sam would disagree.  The mighty 2s soaked up a significant amount of pressure and went over to reach the final score of 21-12. The game was close and well fought, a significant improvement on last year.

The fantastically spirited game didn’t stop at the final whistle, with the customary team photo (to follow) and a rousing 3 cheers for Ken, whose sad passing was the dawning of this fine day. And as usual, probably the highlight of the day is Kens Mum and Dad’s Chinese meal, which is customary on the Rugby Day. They do a tremendous job out of the kindness of their hearts, so we are hugely grateful to them.

The 1s followed up with a emphatic victory over close rivals Old Cats, giving us some breathing space at 2nd in the league. We made a very good team look quite ordinary – so well done to those guys. We are marching on towards promotion, we play Met next week who are unbeaten so all hands on deck. Please get down to Imber Court and support the boys on Saturday if you can.