Olney v Oadby Wyggestonians - 3rd February 2024

The game today was sponsored by IGL (Infrastructure Gateway Ltd) with thanks to Kevin Spain. Always welcome and much appreciated to see companies supporting the club in this way and nice from our point of view to show off what a proper community rugby club is all about. We welcomed Wyggs to East Street for the return fixture having narrowly lost when we played them earlier in the season. With both sides not picking up as many points as they would have hoped so far, this was a proper lower end of the table clash. A different approach to dating last week for Plod Soman when a friend set him up on a blind date. The only thing he told him about her was that she was expecting a baby. She was more than a bit surprised when he turned up wearing just a nappy and sucking his thumb!

In the early stages of the game Olney appeared to have the upper hand and spent several minutes in the Wyggs 22 with one attempt held up over the line. It was an attack from further out that initiated the first score though when Oscar Bennett found a hole in the Wyggs back line to feed Harvey Dench who raced down the left to score. Wyggs had a man in the bin for a deliberate knock on but despite being a man down, their first real attack resulted in a score when their forwards drove over. Olney’s backs were firing again later when good handling led to another for Harvey D on the left wing. A scrum on Olney’s 5m line saw a chip to the wide territory on the left and that man Harvey D gathered to run the full length. One wonders why he didn’t think to score closer to the posts! Oscar B again found a gap and also found Ethan Chambers in support who scored close to the posts for the bonus point try. Ewan Fuller was having a good day with the boot again to ensure the full 7 points each try, and at half time Olney were 28-7 to the good.

The second half seemed to see something of a resurgence in the Wyggs side and ambition paid off with the first score of the half when a good move down the right wing resulted in the try. Five minutes later an almost carbon copy of this gave them another to narrow the scoreline to just 11 points. Wyggs were now finding the open spaces and exploiting them well so it came as no surprise when a further try down the right took them to within one score after the conversion and a bonus point for the afternoon Pressure was relieved somewhat after a fine run from Ewan F down the middle of the pitch allowed him to offload to Oscar B who finished the move with a spectacular dive under the posts. Strangely the conversion was charged down. Late in the game Wyggs had a successful penalty shot at goal to take them to within one score at the final whistle and a second bonus point. Final score 33-27 to Olney.

A much used cliché, but this was the proverbial game of two halves. Olney will be a little disappointed to let Wyggs back into it in the second half but should be rightly pleased with the 5 league points they took from the afternoon. A bit to work on in the week but cause for celebration from the victory. Both sets of players left the field looking as if they would welcome the hot bath on offer, lovingly prepared by the ever smiling Bob Taylor.

Something else we heard recently is, that despite being married for years and sharing many things in their lives, Mrs Harris still gets extremely angry when Mr Harris occasionally borrows her toothbrush. If anyone knows of a better way to get dog poo off the bottom of his work boots then could they please let him know?