This week’s home game was sponsored by local legend and businessman Jim Osborn and his company Front Row Fencing. Jim has been involved with the club since he could just about walk (some say now he can still just about walk!) and is a member of the Osborn dynasty from North Crawley who have supported and sponsored the club for several years. It’s a rare occurrence when there’s not a member of the family on the touchline both home and away. The club is, as ever, extremely grateful for their involvement.

A visit from Leicester side Vipers this week would bring back memories for some of the club veterans of many a battle from the days before league rugby when friendlies were not always that friendly. We welcomed them today looking forward to a feast of running rugby.
From the kick off it was evident that Vipers were going to be a stern test with a well organised set of forwards and some handy looking backs behind them. This was the case in the early stages when Olney were pinned back and forced into giving away penalties, one of which resulted in 3 points for the visitors. Soon after, a missed touch kick found Stu Livesey who weaved his way through the defence and passed to Sven Meiland who still had work to do before scoring to the left of the posts.
Back to the other end, and with the penalty count increasing, Vipers took the chance to kick their way to the lead with two more successful attempts at goal. End to end rugby, and a quick penalty caught the visitors napping with Samir Ali Mohamed bagging the try after some neat handling. Another missed touch landed in the arms of full back and part time rally driver Struan Brooks who found gaps in the visitors defence. He fed Phil Bowden who did the same and gave winger Marcus Goss a run in to the corner, although he wouldn’t mind having legs 4 inches longer as the line seemed to be further away than expected. With Vipers having the upper hand in the set piece, the Olney forwards were willing to let the backs have plenty of ball and the Brooks/Bowden combination worked again for Bowden to score wide on the left taking the score to 24-9 at the break.

After the break, Vipers were still happy to play the forward game which again paid off with 3 points, but at the other end Elliot Simpson added to Olney’s tally with a fine individual effort which he converted himself. Still Vipers kept coming though and a lengthy period of sustained pressure led to the somewhat inevitable pushover try, narrowing the gap to 31-19. Towards the latter stages of the match in the impending darkness, things were lit up when another missed touch from Vipers was collected by Bowden then on to Brooks who created holes in the visitors defence to score wide on the right. The final try of the day came when the forwards took the ball through the middle and when Hadley Eames was stopped short and the ball bobbled up, Goss was on hand to grab it and touch down from close range. Final score 41-19. The feast of running rugby was evident in parts but also the forwards had their moments which made for an entertaining game for the supporters who turned out in good numbers, so well done to them too.

A story from ages past when Mrs Harris went into labour. Mr Harris phoned the hospital to explain the situation and the midwife asked “Is this her first child?” to which he replied, “No, I’m her husband”. Later when the contractions were getting more frequent he was shouting at her to push. I am bloody pushing said Mrs Harris. To which he responded…Well push harder or we won’t get this car started and you’ll not get to hospital in time!