Keeno! Keeno! Keeno!

I woke Saturday morning with a hollow sinking feeling in my stomach. I was nervous for the first time since I can remember.

With the last games disappointing loss to Tring fresh in the minds, pressure was on for an improved effort in front of a vocal Highmans crowd, and also to get the evening proceedings off to a good start.

Expectedly tension was high before the warm up, and with the line for the physio room 10 deep, Baden called on all his organisational skills to sort it out. While waiting in this line, my tension was eased as I watched Joe “tackle me if you can” Green practising 65m drop goals. I knew we were in for a good day.

The warm up went by, same as usual. Back’s did there thing, forward’s did there’s. We went back to the shed and the ref decided to put his watch forward early, so before we knew it we were out!

Wood’s started well. Lugs got a sneaky try on the blind side after some good lead up work from 1 to 8. Eac’s packed his kicking boots and slotted a penalty. Joseph got another one of those tries. 13-0 up and turning with the breeze, things were looking good.

Welwyn started the 2nd half strongly and got 5 back as woodford forgot how to tackle for a while. But with some clever kicking from Dwightmess and Eac’s, wood’s soon thought back. Dr Bevan got another to his tally as Roswell and Wildman chased a kick and turned the ball over. Joseph got another one of those tries, again. Eac’s kicked a couple of goals in there somewhere as well. With my match fitness dented after not playing for a while I came off with 15 to go satisfied with a good days work and happy to be in one piece. Wynne “at all costs” scored another towards the end, when the ref turned around and saw him lying on the ball over the try line. Welwyn scored one at the end, job done. 35-10. Another good win on the way to our goal of a well deserved league title.

Let the festivities begin:

I scoffed down some food to line my stomach, as I was having a few drinks at the club for my birthday; I knew it was going to get messy. The inevitable power shandy somehow managed to stay down, brilliant. Beer after beer, shot after shot, a few emotional words – how can I still be standing? The boy’s hormones went into over drive as 2 good-looking faces managed to get lost and end up at Woodford rugby club. The boat race was organised B vs. F. Disgraceful effort from the big boys as the backs cleaned them up. Hard to lose tho with Ray “give me another” and Wildman “I’ve had lots of practise” in my team. With best of the 80’s playing on the stereo, the night progressed. I staggered into a cab at 2, spent.

Great win, Great beer, Great mates, Great fun, Great night

JK