Olney travelled over the border to Leicestershire with a coach (full?) of pseudo Frenchmen carrying baguettes and wearing berets for what should have been two teams to play old rivals Market Harborough. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, only the first team ended up playing so some well-oiled support was on hand to cheer them on. Harborough were also well supported on the touchline as this was the occasion of their president’s lunch and old boy’s day so their notoriously partisan crowd was in good spirits. Many thanks to Harborough for their generous hospitality.

Olney kicked off and an immediate penalty allowed Will Brock a chance to put the first points on the board which he duly obliged for a 3-0 lead. Harborough were soon ahead though when a touch kick went out on the full and the resulting lineout was won, fed to the backs who showed good pace to score wide on the left. A penalty apiece added to the scores before Harborough bossed a scrum on the 22 and a short kick through was gathered by the winger for a try in the corner, again well converted. Olney’s day wasn’t helped with the loss of Gabs Mann and Charlie Harris to injury which meant a bit of a reshuffle with several players now having to play out of position. Undeterred, they pressed on and flanker on the day Tommy Herman finished off some fine forward drives with a try close to the posts. A scrum penalty quickly taken by Harborough 10m from Olney’s line was transferred out to the winger again and he darted over for his second of the afternoon. The half ended with Harborough ahead at 22-13. The sides were reasonably evenly matched at this stage and the game was entertaining to watch although from some spectators’ point of view the amount of spitting, swearing and gloating over penalty decisions did detract somewhat from the overall enjoyment.

In the second half Harborough sensed there were a few cracks appearing in the Olney defence and they exploited them well and with their forwards gaining a bit more dominance too they were spending more time in Olney territory. A high tackle close in and the resulting penalty kick put the first points on the board for Harborough. Soon after this a try was saved when Brock put his tackle in and then halted the progress of Harborough’s winger. Quite why he had his tackle out in the first place is anyone’s guess. This didn’t stop the home side for long and two tries in a few minutes, one for the forwards and one for the backs extended their lead and gave them a bonus point for the afternoon. The forwards were in control again to increase the lead further but Olney did get points back themselves after Graham Smith bundled over from close range. The final score of the game inevitably came to Harborough when their backs found a gaping hole in the middle of the park to finish under the posts. Final score 49-20, which seems quite a heavy defeat but no blame on the players on the day and at least the result was better than England against France! We’re told the journey home was interesting and things progressed further back in the clubhouse but those stories are generally not for publication.

We were reminded of an event from years ago when Mr and Mrs Harris had a pet budgie. Unfortunately, Mr Harris came home and found it dead on the floor of the cage one day. Thinking he was doing the right thing he went and bought an identical one. When he got back Mrs Harris was a little upset and said “What the heck am I going to do with two dead budgies!”