Opening up, I'll say... the league rugby season kicked off last week
weekend and I sincerely hope it's not going to be a season of rain and more
rain but we have to say, things haven't started that well as we had a bucket
load of it from Thursday to Sunday, I'm sure you noticed! I guess though,
the players are slightly relieved as normally at this time of the year
they're more concerned about grazed knees and elbows .

So, for the Ton... a mixed bag of results at the weekend. The twos were at
home and kicked of their league season with an impressive 43-21 home win
against Tiverton and given we were a bit lite in the "Ones" we thought it
would be a real struggle but somehow we managed to cobble a side together
and produced a great team performance. We must say a big thanks to the
opposition who lent us two players and if that doesn't show you the good
nature of rugby as a sport, I don't know what will,lent us two and we won!.
...anyway well done to all who played and that this result kicks of a good
start for new skipper Dan Taylor.

Down at Devonport Services it was unfortunately a different story as the
"Ones" went down by 29-19. The game was played on their second team pitch as
the electrical contractors were still working on the first team pitches
flood lights! What a shame for all, as it's a good pitch and it would have
been a chance for some of the youngsters to play in a big stadium ..well,
small stadium if truth be known but none the less a good experience, heyho.
As an aside, I couldn't help thinking they've had all summer to get the
lights sorted, (wash my mouth out)!

Anyway back to the day....Jules and I set off in what I thought was enough
time to get there but we somehow managed to arrive 15 minutes late (I'll
take the blame). Having had a knee opp' a few weeks back, Jules managed to
hobble to the pitch in a drizzle, we asked the score and were shocked to
hear we were already 15 points down and as we watched, the home side
slotted another penalty and then with 20 minutes gone another penalty saw
us 21 points down and a" kicking" looked on the cards as we seemed very much
out of sorts... ball retention, ill-discipline and deck clearing seemed to
be the key factors to our down fall as far as I could see.... Any way...
the drizzle change to rain and the rain changed to biblical steroids but
fortunately for all it wasn't muddy or windy just very wet. Thing was, we
seemed to rally in the monsoon and having been 21-3 down at half time we
started much brighter in the second half and we scored a couple of well
worked tries and we were in with a shout. Unfortunately the home team regrouped
and scored again to put them out of sight but we were banging on the door
right to the final whistle. Given we were a little makeshift especial in the
pack, the players were not to despondent after the game and given our second
half performance it wasn't all bad and I should mention the opposition had a
few half decent players on show as well. So.... work to be done at training
and I'm confident we'll crack our points duck this weekend.

Our juniors are now in full training and their seasons start in the next two
weeks so I'll update you each week on their progress .

So... to this weekend... Our Ones are at home to a newly promoted Tamar
Saracens which means we really don't know much about them bar them having a
good season in the division below last year. Team manager Tom Churchward
reports we have several "big guns" back in the line up this week so he's
hoping we can get our first points on the board this weekend. We will also
be welcoming a brand new sponsor to the club in the "SC group" and they are
having lunch with us. They work out of Dunkerswell and do Engineering for
military vehicles etc I'm sure there's a bit more to their operations than
I've mentioned but great to have them on board supporting local rugby.
Saturday looks like the weather is going to be good and the sun will make an
appearance so...I'll say, "come on down"... we'd love to have your support
and a cheeky beer or two will do you the world of good as you cheer the lads
on. I will mention that our forward coach and son of the Ton "Issacc Dalton"
will be making his first appearance since returning from big time rugger. So
I'll officially welcome him back to the "field of dreams"

Dan's crew are off to South Molton and I'm assured he has a full side this
week and let's hope he can bring back the bacon, to make it a perfect day
with two wins. Both sides kick off at 3pm .

That's it for this week

So...#UTT

Yours

Lord Jez