What an awesome weekend, with the weather playing its part with a calm winter's day for our Old Timers Day.
The Colts won their early game at Redwood 38 - 29 against Norths. The Ducks continued
on their winning way against Johnsonville in the late game 28 - 15, and the Premier Reserves simply ran riot in the early game at the home of rugby Lyndhurst Park against Johnsonville 87 - 19. The Reserves were the only team to lose against OBU 47 - 26.
The Premiers continued their winning way with a sixth consecutive win against Johnsonville 41 - 24, thus retaining the Carman Cup. They lead the Swindale Shield at the halfway stage of the competition.
The
score seems convincing, and although Tawa started well into the wind, little inaccuracies and ill discipline kept Johnsonville in the hunt. It was just a try by Kalim Kelemete with less than 10 minutes to go that sealed the game.
The concerning issue is that we continue to get on the wrong side of the officials, with this time culminating in two red cards. You can always debate the rights and wrongs of decisions, but I can’t remember the last time a ref changed his mind. We just need to learn from what we are doing, especially in the
collisions where the majority of the cards are occurring.
The highlight though was the large amount of juniors playing in the junior spotlight and floating around the clubhouse afterwards, and the great turnout of old timers.
It was great to see former President Alan ‘Silver Fox’ Hornblow attending. Alan is now in his 90s and still as sharp as ever. Danny Mather, Paul McDonald, Steve McCormick, Alan Barr, Tony Burt, John Russell, Ken Wimsett, Michael Fox, BB Burston, Tony Sutherland, Chris Burgess, Dave Franks, Ian Rudd, Paul De Banardo..
The list goes on and so did the stories.
There was plenty of discussion regarding the absence of a few regular attendees especially the likes of Graham Ross, Jacque, Hogger, and Mex, but it just allowed us to embellish the truth a little bit further!
No toilet parties this year - not sure the floor can take the weight of these former athletes - but sure enough Floyd was able to source a bottle or two of port to cap off a memorable evening!
I am already
looking forward to next year's event, which will coincide with our 80th anniversary. Further details will be advised shortly.
A big thank you to Will Caccia-Birch for `hosting’ the fireside chat with Chris Boyd. We all know with Floyd anything can happen, but in Will’s natural knowledgeable way he kept it all on track. It was interesting that as the chat continued more and more people
came into the clubrooms and were riveted by the conversation.
Thanks Floyd. You gave this year's OTD a great kick-start to the day.
This week we host Avalon at the home of rugby.
Avalon may be sitting at the foot of the table, but it is these sort of games that can become banana skin games.
The big game for the club is probably the top of the table clash between the Ducks and Pōneke at Kilbirnie Park, which should be a classic. The Colts play in the early game also against Pōneke.
