Well…. I’m sure you’ve all noticed there is only 6 days until Chrimbo… I hope you’re all as organised as I am or should I say as my wife is!! Remember it ain’t about “stuff” it’s about getting together and having a good break with family and mates and resting up ready for the hard yards of January.

Back to last weekend … Twos went up to Bideford and whilst we were a bit light with troops, we blinking well went which nowadays is a big thing in community rugby. Once again, hats off to the lads that travelled… spoke with Churchie and he said it was a tough gig and to be fair we got a bit of a kicking as they were well organised but heyho, there’s always a pride in honouring an away fixture in my opinion.
For the Ones it was a tough away trip and as I said last week in my waffle, although we won easily at home to this mob earlier in the season they didn’t look half bad and away to Tamar Sarries was always going to be a different matter. Yes we were light of several big guns because of an “in season” wedding but I have a phrase that I use for these sorts of situations which many of you have heard me say before. It goes along the lines of … “you do something with the thing you’ve got” which basically means ….”get on with it and stop moaning”. Anyway… what a performance, a tough game for sure and not pretty to watch by all accounts but it was a win that was definitely grafted out under duress. Two yellow cards for two senior players which meant we played a third of the game with only 14 players on the pitch. Shame we didn’t get the bonus point though and this now means, half way through the season we are in fourth place. I will be quick to add two of the three teams above us are very catchable and even the unbeaten league leaders, Torquay have to visit our fortresses where we are unbeaten so far this season. I’m going to put a” shilling” on winning the home games against both Devonport and the mighty Tics, let’s hope we have full troops out on both those games we owe them one! I think we can definitely finish in the top two. Big thanks to the faithfull hand full that travelled to support and big thanks to Jules who did the report and took pickies.
Did you know we are also still in the Devon cup where we have to tackle a league higher opposition in Old Public Oaksand this game is for a place in the final. We’ve also entered the National cup which starts is at the back end of the season. So, a bit of rugger to come in the second half of the season.

Sunday… another busy day at the Fortress, as we mainly hosted North Petherton. Last year they bought half the town and it seemed pretty similar this season. Even Dan Frost the Exeter chiefs hooker turned up last year. His brother coaches their 11s. With that in mind, I’m afraid to say our 11s had a tough day in the office, however many positives were taken from the game with some great performances in defence. On the whole our teams fared somewhat better than last year against them. Stand out performance was our 13s who made the journey up to North Pethy and came away with a convincing victory.
As usual I will say you can read about the other games on the Face ache pages where coaches are getting ever more confident with their literary skills.
For our Junior crews that’s it for this half of the season and we finished off Sunday with Christmas party for 7s 8s and 9s and guess what? Father Christmas turned up in the refs room to dish out presents. Basically it was a big Christmas party! Big thanks to Gordon for looking after Father Christmas and even Stopper turned up to sit on the big fella’s lap.
Our Chair, wants to say a big thanks to all who came and helped preparing and clean up on the day. He added a special big thanks to Clare and her growing team of 5 in the kitchen who have really transformed Sundays down at the club. 309 players fed on Sunday. They started at 8am and didn't leave until 5.30pm. Big hand to all of them such a great Community atmosphere .
Stuart rounded of his summary by asking me to say on his behalf, “ Merry Christmas to all and a big thanks to all the coaches, parents and those who volunteer every week, have a great break, have some family time and we start again in the new year.”

Ok on to this weekend, we have two games against Exmuff, The twos make the short trim down to theirs and I’m sure they’ll rush back as it’s the Players Christmas social at the club in the evening. For grub this week it’s Our President Justin Nuttall’s day as he welcomes all the Life and Vice Presidents for a bite to eat. Always a lively day out and with a home game against Exmuff and most people knocking off from work for the Christmas break, it should be good crowd a lively day at Tonsville.

Next up will be the Boxing day runaround which Churchy is as usual sorting. Turn up at 11am, names out of a hat run around for an hour and then adjourn to the bar for cocktails or beer, whichever is your tipple. Everyone is welcome to play whatever the skills levels. If you have any friends down for Christmas who fancy a blowout they are welcome too, we can supply kit and boots, so no excuses…. always a lively doo. No players are well come to come down and watch. I think Stopper will be strumming a few tunes as well. Could be wrong on that front but now I’ve said that, I’m sure he will.

Also one for the diary 24th Jan is our Junior quiz night, it was very good last year… book a table with Suart it gets busy!

That’s it chums for 2024, sorry to subject you all to this error strung drivel but to all “Have a Merry Crimbo and a happy New Year. You’ll also be pleased to hear you’ll have a week off from me as next Thursday it’s Boxing day.

#UTT

Lord Jez