A Friday night game under lights is always fun, and the vets had a Men's Own game in the fixtures, but all week numbers looked short, but never so short to cancel... Men's Own pulled out of the league this year and are just playing Merit Table games to try and revive the club, one of our nearest neighbours at 8 miles away as the crow flies, and going on tonight's evidence, good luck to them as they have good numbers and a great spirit.

Men's Own had a full squad of 22 available, so agreed to lend some players to get a game on, and with a last minute scramble for players, including two from the Man Cave Charity team in Northampton, Olney had just 10 players of our own. The junior coaching team came up trumps to help, so we had Jack Hill and Ben Glackin in the front row, Al Mcmullen in the 2nd, Frank Livesey, Glen Amos back row, Jake Doyle scrum Half, Cherry Fly, Ryan Wade and Rob Creighton centres, and Kelvin Dwumfuo at full back, with the remaining 5 places filled by Men's own players.

The game that could have been a shambles given the circumstances actually ended up being a cracker. The borrowed players were all good, especially all action Will in the 2nd row, and barely a tackle was missed all night. The Men's Own team were of course better drilled and made fewer mistakes, but the scraps of ball that we got were used to punch some big holes, with only the final pass to put someone clear being juggled in the drizzle that came down gently throughout. We conceded three tries in the first half, but knew we'd get somewhere in the 2nd.

Finally, emergency stand in ref Jim Taylor gave us some decisions and from quick ball we ran through the hands, cutting back to attack the weak 10 channel and pierce Men's
Own's defences 3 times ourselves through Doyle, Wade and Mcmullen, all three tries converted by Cherry. A final score of 21-43 showed that it was a well fought game and everyone had smiles at the end. Many of the Men's Own boys had never played under lights so loved the experience, and the bar was packed until late.

A mention has to go to Frank Livesey who at 73 played the full 60 minutes, and surely becomes Olney's oldest ever player surpassing the legends that are the Colonel and Geoff Janes. For so many of us it was our only game of the season, and one of the most enjoyable games to play in I can remember. Next fixture for the vets is Saturday 18th April at ON's vets followed by a night out in the big Town!

Cherry