Welcome everyone to the start of another season here at Olney RFC and Doff’s Field. For those who are unaware which league the first team are in, it is the Regional 2 East Midlands. This is at level 6 which, strangely enough, is one above level 7 where we were at last season prior to a well deserved promotion.

Today saw the visit of Market Harborough, our friends and rivals from over the border in Leicestershire. Always a close and entertaining fixture with both clubs usually being evenly matched.

On a very hard pitch and a dry day, Olney started the game with the wind behind them and were soon on the attack, adopting the style of play which served them well over the previous year. However, things didn’t always go to plan and scores seemed hard to come by for the first quarter of an hour or so. Pressure told in the end and a cross kick was caught well by Hadley Eames who offloaded to Ben Duke who had the pace and space to scamper over for the first try, duly converted by Ewan Fuller. Despite being camped in the Harborough half for lengthy spells, this was to be the only score of the first half.

Harborough were the team having the better of the early exchanges in the second half and it came as no surprise when, after several phases, the ball was shipped out to the winger who darted over wide on the left. The match now started to liven up a bit and Harborough extended their lead from a penalty. After a few more penalties Olney made their way into the 22 and debutant Gabs Mann finished off the attack with a try to reinstate the lead. The Harborough winger was back in action again when he was on the end of a move to touch down wide on the left once more. Late in the game, Olney were back on the charge and were awarded a penalty close to the line. With the end of the game in sight, Fuller kicked the points to put them back in front. Unfortunately, Harborough had other intentions and almost immediately forced a penalty straight from the kick off. The kicker trusted his luck when he may normally have kicked for the corner and was successful to put them a point up on the scoreboard. With very little time left, Olney got back close to the line but 15-16 ended up the final score.

For the neutral this would have been an entertaining game, but from an Olney point of view it was a little disappointing having been on top for a lot of the first half in particular. Nevertheless, a lot of positives could be taken from the performance.

For the old and infirm who like to think the game was better in their day, just think back to the times when you visited the likes of Old Foreskinnians thirds and played on a sloping quagmire in the back end of Coventry somewhere, covered in broken glass and dog turds. Your physio was a bucket of water and the changing rooms stank of the filth from the weeks before and worse. The kit weighed about two stone when wet and the ball was even heavier and slippery as an eel’s pecker. When you got into the clubhouse after a cold shower and eventually got served it was with a dubious pint of something brown and warm which you didn’t really like and then some silly sod brought a jug of it round for you to share out. You couldn’t wait to get back to a terrapin hut which leaked only to fall over in the mud outside because there were no lights to see your way home. Oh yes, the good old days. The players of today just don’t know what they are missing!

For those who were wondering, there will be more stories of the romantic tales from the Harris family in the coming weeks and possibly a few anecdotes featuring Plod Soman. They’ve had a quiet summer but give it time, something will turn up.