OAP / VIP Day 23rd October 2004
OAP / VIP Day 23rd October 2004
The weather could not dampen the
spirits of the Old Atherstone Players that managed to find their way back down
to their old stomping ground!
Warmed by pre-match hospitality the old boys pulled on their wellies and
water proofs and took a familiar stroll over to the battle ground. Before the match had kicked off many of
them suddenly realised that the Clubhouse was not as close as they had thought,
even worse age had definitely had an impact on their capacity to drink beer in
quantity and keep it within their bladders! They were delighted to find that the
Council had provided an outdoor lavatory not far from the pitch (well they had
planted some trees behind which they could do the
necessary).
On the pitch the current Atherstone
players put up a good performance beating their opponents Standard by 36 points
to 5. Captain Danny Cooke sighed
with relief; he had not relished the thought of the post match debrief from the
older players had his team failed to meet their standards!!! As it was there was little to fault the
performance of the team so the atmosphere remained jovial to say the
least!
Returning to the Clubhouse slightly
dishevelled and incredibly wet, the OAPs settled down to munch on the grub that
had been laid out on a white table cloth overlaid with black cloths (in keeping
with club colours). The beer
continued to flow. On the large
screen, all of a sudden a real blast from the past appeared. Video footage of a 1981 tour toGuernsey brought whoops of delight from the
gathered OAPs (and groans from the younger players!) John Hughes shouted with glee commenting
on the power of the scrummage and the straightness and speed of the scrum half!
(I have always said self praise is no recommendation but this did not seem to
matter to him!)
Kim Whittaker, who organised the event,
beamed with delight as he took his book around gathering names of more OAPs that
he could invite to the next bash!
Slowly but surely the old boys began to
disappear. Obviously this was
nothing to do with their inability to keep up the pace of the young lads! The celebrations move from the club to a
local hostelry now owned by a current player. A few of the old `uns managed to get
there! Ricky Bartlam, Sarge, Kim,
John Clarke, Boney, Bocco and Jock were still downing the ale. One by one they disappeared home for the
night.
Kim was the last man standing (well in
a manner of speaking!). Having had an eventfull journey back
down to the town in the back of a van, stuffed full of players, Kim finally
decided enough was enough and slipped away silently into the night to dream of
the April 6th OAPs Select versus Atherstone Fist XV match he had in
mind!
If you are an OAP and you get a letter
from Kim inviting you to attend an event, don't bin it. You will be binning the chance of
reliving some of your wilder days!
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