It seems a long time since the last report and much has happened on and off the pitch. Stamford had to call off their visit to Olney so the 5 points were automatically awarded to keep us at the top of the league. The club has competed in two cup semi-finals. The Alliance cup against Towcestrians which we unfortunately lost by a single try, and last Tuesday we travelled to old friends and rivals Bletchley for the Lewis shield where, in atrocious conditions, we emerged as victors to reach the final at Franklins Gardens on May 4th. In other news the storms at the latter end of February saw much damage to fences, trees uprooted, vehicles overturned and rumour has it someone saw Plod Soman being blown down an alleyway.

This week the first team travelled to darkest Leicestershire and the home of Vipers who we know can be a tough side to beat at their own ground so we would have to put in a good performance to come out on top. Olney kicked off with the wind in their favour and were soon on the attack. Unfortunately, during one foray into the Vipers 22, James Brock had to leave the field early after an off the ball incident and was replaced by Alibiee Tayedzerwa. Undeterred, Olney continued to attack but after conceding a few penalties found themselves defending their own line and the catch and drive from a close lineout followed by a 13 man shove gave Vipers the first points. Olney came back almost immediately as a set piece move allowed the ball to travel through the hands to reach Struan Brooks on the right who managed to wriggle over for the try, converted by Ewan Fuller. When Olney found themselves in a lineout position 5m out, no heavy weight tactics were needed as Cobie Chapman caught the throw and slid through a gap for the try, again converted by Fuller. This seemed to upset the particularly vocal supporters in the cage above who for some reason resorted to shouting various forms of abuse at anything they thought was worth shouting at. Olney had the best response when winning another lineout, Fuller made ground and offloaded to Ethan Chambers in support who scored under the posts. Some good defence kept Vipers out until half time and the sides turned round with Olney 21-5 up.

The second half was always going to be hard against the wind and a pack intent on dominating the play, so it came as no surprise when the pressure finally told and, despite some valiant defence, Vipers scored from a close range scrum to narrow the gap to 9 points. Olney looked good with ball in hand but occasionally the passes went astray or penalties given away to allow Vipers the opportunity to revert to their adopted tactics. This paid off for them when the 13 man maul was effective again with a try in the corner to leave them only two points behind at 19-21 after a fine conversion. Vipers had the chance to go ahead later with a penalty attempt but this just drifted wide. Olney ran from deep but a wayward pass saw Phil Bowden take the ball whilst his feet were in touch. With the touch judge elsewhere from the penalty the winger grabbed the ball, ran to the line and put it down to score. Much to the astonishment of all concerned, the try was awarded and Vipers were ahead 24-21. Despite the best efforts of the Olney side who kept pushing to the end the 24-21 score was possibly the result which reflected the game as a whole. As expected, Olney knew they were in for a testing afternoon away from home, and this time came away second best, but they can hold their heads up as they played with the integrity, respect and sportsmanship which the game is based on.

Two age old sayings sprang to mind when reflecting on the afternoon’s entertainment. Honesty is the best policy, and if you can’t say anything nice then say nothing. That’s all.

Apparently Mrs Harris visited the doctors for a routine check-up as one does when you get to a certain age and came home extremely upset, in floods of tears, explaining to Mr Harris that she had to take two pills a day for the rest of her life. In his best sympathetic manner he reassured her this wasn’t a big deal as lots of people do the same and asked why she was so worried. “Because he only gave me 24”, she sobbed.