The team travelled to Market Harborough this week to face what could possibly be the stiffest test so far this season. Harborough (formerly Kibworth for the old folk) have generally been one of the stronger sides in the league and are used to finishing near the top at the end of the season. The Olney boys were relishing the prospect and hoped to pick up points to add to their impressive tally so far. In the local news we heard that the rumours about the local flasher retiring are unfounded…..we understand he’s going to stick it out for another year.

Olney started the match with the breeze in their favour and looked to play their expansive game as usual. Harborough were a match for them though and spent considerable periods in the Olney half testing the defence on several occasions. The home side were also looking to run the ball whenever possible and looked dangerous with ball in hand but one or two handling errors let them down on occasions. Olney were also guilty of a few mistakes and with both sides evenly matched the score at half time was unusually 0-0. Nothing much more to say than that.

Olney started the second half well and made inroads into the Harborough half, one of which led to a penalty and an attempt at goal which unfortunately drifted wide of the posts. Stu Livesey crossed the line but was deemed to be held up and Harborough were able to clear and then work their way up field away from danger. After a lengthy spell of play in midfield Harborough attacked the Olney line with purpose and an apparently deliberate knock on resulted in a yellow card for Arthur Betteridge. Almost immediately following the next scrum a high tackle saw Jacob DeMain join him on the side for 10 minutes. This was the impetus Harborough needed and making the most of the advantage in numbers their forwards duly drove over for the first score. A penalty on the 10m line and a fine kick to secure 3 more points took the score to 10-0. When Olney were back up to full strength, James Brock made some good ground with his direct running and Charles Rylands and Rob Morgan did a lot of hard work at the breakdown but no further scores gave Harborough victory at the final whistle.

A fair result on the day and credit to Market Harborough on a deserved win. Their half back pairing will cause many sides in this league a few problems throughout the season. It was noted our young touch judge was the source of excitement for one of our senior female supporters but we’ll let her explain that. Thanks to Harborough for their hospitality and to the many travelling supporters who came to watch on the day.

In other news, single man Plod Soman finally got to see his GP late last week and dropped his trousers to show her the extremely nasty rash he had developed around his meat and two veg. She was completely indifferent about it though and just carried on pushing her trolley round Aldi.