This week’s guest reporter: Howie Felter

Pics here - https://www.olneyrfc.co.uk/teams/156898/match-centre/0-6437438/photos

With a break from league fixtures we turned to the Alliance cup and the visit of ON’s who traditionally have been one of the stronger sides in the competition over the last few years. A good club who do well from the production line which is the Northampton Boys School and provides them with a steady influx of players. We’ll have to see what they can do against a resurgent Olney side who are working their way up in the level below. In local news this week we heard that the Weston Underwood dominatrix club has been saved from going bust when its members had a whip round. On a similar theme the local eczema charity is also trying to raise funds, ironically by selling scratch cards.

With the pitch in fine condition and the weather quite favourable, the afternoon was suited for a feast of running rugby. It was ON’s who looked the livelier side from the start and looked to play a fast paced game which presumably they are well used to at level 5 which they currently play at. Much of their play involved getting the ball wide and after 10 minutes the left winger had enough space to round the Olney defence for the first score. Despite some good spells of possession from the home side, it was ON’s to score next after some strong driving runs. The third try came after a rapidly retreating scrum and a couple of missed tackles for a score wide on the left. A sustained attack by Olney and a period camped on the ON’s line led to an interception and a length of the field chase which Olney unfortunately came second in and try number four for ON’s, all tries converted and took the half time score to 0 – 28.

The second half carried on in similar fashion with Olney not doing anything particularly wrong and having some fine passages of play but when ON’s shipped the ball wide they seemingly had the extra pace and support play to create opportunities. On three occasions the ball found its way out to the left wing with the same result. Pace and space ultimately leading to three tries and the score to a 0-45 margin. It was then Olney’s turn to reap rewards from some hard work and they took the chance well with Arthur Betteridge on the end of a fine move and Charlie Hicks converting. Shortly after, another spell of sustained pressure on the ON’s line saw Elliot Byrne collect a ball from 5m and dive over for another converted try. With Olney now repelling any further attacks and having the upper hand for the latter stages of the game they kept ON’s at bay and at the final whistle the score stood at 14-45.

On the day it was just a step too far for the Olney side who had made several changes from the previous week due to injury and unavailability. Hopefully they can see players returning for the rest of the league campaign with some important matches coming before the end of the season.

Continuing with the ‘Things you didn’t know about Steve Howson’ feature…. It’s not well publicised but if you play the films in slow motion you can just see that he played the stunt double for Julie Walters in the last two Harry Potter movies. Meanwhile in the Harris household Mrs Harris thought she would brush up on her reading of classic literature so she called in at the Oxfam bookshop and asked for a book by Shakespeare. When asked which one she replied “William, I think”