All that glitters is not golden

This weeks Doddering had one obstacle that most Dodderers managed to overcome. In fact in these technological times its a wonder that putting the clocks forward or backward at certain times of the year still requires user intervention. This year is no different and the clocks went forward an hour.Those that managed to get it wrong arrived late by one hour – almost in time to go home again.

Timmy, Dick & George deserve a special mention for inexactitude, although Dick was actually 10mins early for the supposed kickoff – so deserves praise for his enthusiastic almost early arrival .

Spring Forward and Fall Back is the mnemonic often handed out to help us remember which way the clocks should be adjusted. Actually on a second look it could also serve as a reminder to how we should aim to play our rugby with vigor and catching the ball whilst running forward and then falling back in support.

As we were down on numbers we settled down to a big game and a rather poorly chosen team that had all the good players in one team and the less good in another. (this was a comment from a fellow Dodderer – see later).
Your Captain was self appointed into the good players team – although this was obviously a mistake.

Great tries from Tom, Jenks, Nick, Tim, Jordan & Nat.
Off to a good start the good players team scored a few ‘individual’ tries and surged ahead; but what happened overall was a surprise. The other team won!
Postman Pat had it succinctly (he was on the less good team) “just because you have all the good players doesn’t mean you can gel” – he was indeed right. Our team was a team of individuals not a finely crafted team full of group ambition. After all Rugby is a team game and it is the team performance that matters.

For those that were late many of us stayed on until almost Ten O’clock and continued to play until we had a thouroughly good runout.

One Dodderer (who shall remain nameless) had a complete ‘flame out’ and left early at the injustice of it all. (Please come back next week)
All you Captain can say apart from “it’s a team game” is  – All that glitters is not golden….

P.S. Yesterday was at the Shakespeare exhibition in Stratford (trying to look intelligent) and now know that this expression comes from the Merchant of Venice. Just thought you might like to know that!

Patchy Play Today

Today’s Doddering was plainly not up to scratch. There were moments of greatness but plenty of  lapses in concentration and lack of energy all round.

The Big Game (we did not have the attendance for a league) got off to a very fast start. Early on Jenks made the best looking, two handed – arms stretched interception that was  a real promise for the rest of the match but unfortunately after the first fifteen or so minutes we were  mostly looking pretty poor and apathetic.

The Ferret is showing some real determination to catch those long passes and was showing excellent promise that could preclude entry into the Anchor Butter Handling short list. Keep it up Dan!

Robin made some nice tries today as did Chris and Kiwi. Even your Captain managed to sneak one in although The Ferret was intent on making your Captain work for his try by chasing most of the pitch.

Those of your that observe the 9.14am deadline missed something special today. As we were all suffering from severe lack of energy, concentration, and ball handling skills we had a ‘walking’ match on half pitch. Nobody was allowed to run so position, passing, and marking were particularly important to make space. Actually its much harder than it sounds.

Next week: More focus, Energy, Less Beer (maybe)

Great play today in difficult conditions

After consulting with the Met Office yesterday to check on the prevailing weather conditions your Captain was heartened by the “Good Weather Window” we were forecast.
On arrival this morning the pitch was definitely wet and fairly muddy, and indeed we had the good weather that was forecast altough when we left the Magpies the pitch was definitely much muddier…

As we trudged through the mud ready to coax our bodies into life – our  team iinstinctively selected the highest and driest ground for our kick-off in this weeks four team league.

Fridge Door Left Open
Following the kickoff your Captain was immediately blessed with the best ‘dummy’ on Fridge resulting in a try. Seconds later another chance to dodge the open-doored Fridge to score another try. Sadly it was mostly downhill after that as fitness could not keep up…

Great to see Jenks again…but somebody should have stopped him playing alongside Tom, or Tom should have offered him even more drink last night!

Anchor Butter Award
Dan – The Ferret; is still looking a strong contender for the award – and there is a good chance he could wrestle the title from Kiwi (who probably didn’t deserve it last year, but didn’t perform on the night). Towards the end of the game the ball started to resemble a really gritty soap bar and was therefore really tough to catch so allowances will be made.

 Once again Tim who in his return to blistering form managed to scythe through the lines and score a great one man try. Tim is really showing us all what we could be capable of in another ten or twenty  years. I hope we can all live up to it. Keep it up Tim!

Has anyone noticed that Nigels form has increased significantly later? – not only is he leaner , fitter and faster but his increased performance has resulted in less lip too. Nice One Nigel!
Sadly though word has trickled through that there may be one or two ‘illegal’ off pitch training sessions at the local gym so once again we may have to consider the handicapping scheme we have talked about before.

Postman Pat made a perfect long pass today through The Ferrets upturned arms (resembling a goal post), also perfectly received by Foz who was waiting to score a try on the wing. Given that the ball was a bar of soap and the distance was long this probably deserves an award of its own. Shame the camera wasn’t there.

Looking forward to next week already!