On the occasion of the former players lunch there were three teams at home to entertain the large crowd who had been wined and dined prior to the match. Many thanks to those who organised a marvellous day. Also thanks to bar staff, caterers, raffle ticket sellers and all who contributed to make this day one of the highlights of the season socially.

Against the first team were Wellingborough who had travelled from the frozen north to the more temperate climate of Doff’s field. Always good friends and rivals, this promised to be the usual hard battle.

By the time many of the old folk (and some not so old) had left their seats and got a coat on Olney were already 3 points down thanks to a little indiscipline and a kickable penalty in the 22 after 4 minutes. As the game progressed Olney had a bit more of the possession and also a bit more of the territory, so it came as no surprise they used this possession well to move the ball across the pitch a couple of times and Dan White dotting over for the first try.

The game was not all in favour of the home team though, and a feisty ‘Boro side still wanted a say in the result with some excellent defensive work and good hard attacks from both their forwards and backs. Olney did bag themselves another try before the break courtesy of Ash Elvers who broke the defence to score under the posts. Converted by Ewan Fuller taking the score at half time 12 – 3 to Olney.

‘Boro must have looked at this scoreline and thought they were still in this game and indeed they were. Their forwards worked themselves close to the line and were unlucky when the ball was deemed to be held up. This seemed to spur them on even more and they soon had their reward with a converted try to narrow the gap to two points. The sides were cancelling each other out when Elvers, slippery as a young eel, evaded a couple of tackles on his 22 and broke clear to score under the posts (see pic), much to the delight of the crowd gathered around the Hut. Struan Brooks also evaded the tacklers to attempt a similar move but unfortunately he was stopped and the recycled pass from the ruck was intercepted allowing a run in for another ‘Boro try. A penalty in front of the posts in the blustery conditions would have given ‘Boro the lead late in the game, but fortunately for Olney the wind drifted the kick wide to the right. The final whistle came and Olney, by their own admission, were pleased when it did. Final score ended up at 19 – 17 to the boys in cerise. If an analogy to a school report was applied it would say tried hard, could do better.

Mrs Harris has a tale of her own this week. Rumour has it she got out of the shower and when looking at herself in the mirror was bemoaning the facts to Mr Harris that she appeared to be not as slender as she was in her younger days, things were not quite as pert as they used to be, there was the odd wrinkle and grey hair. She asked Mr Harris to say something to make her feel good, and quick as a flash he replied “At least there’s nothing wrong with your eyesight!”