The weekend rugby match

On Saturday I attended the final match of the season to watch Cambridge play Harrogate. Our pre-match lunch was attended by 262 people, which our president assured us was by the far highest of any of the teams in our division. In fact the visiting Harrogate president told us they averaged about 40. The success of any sporting club is always down to a handful of people, and we have an outstanding president in Rod Bishop and our chairman Jerry Otter, who are both now talking about scaling the heights of another division. The match itself was won 107-5 and although we scored 15 tries it wasn’t as enjoyable an afternoon as our recent victory over Esher at 40-37, which in my opinion was the best match of the season.

Back to the lunch. During the meal we try to guess what the score will be at the end of the match- 6 goes for £5. I always guess 100 nil, 105 nil, 110 nil, 115 nil, 120 nil, 125 nil, to make sure that I can’t win the £250 prize. Help. Did I get teased this week. Luckily Harrogate scored in the final minutes, so nobody won. My PA has just queried whether the pot rolls over to the next game, but I told her no, Mr Otter is far too cunning - if no-one guesses the exact score, the money goes into the club funds. During the off season, we’re going to build a new stand which will hold 160 people, at a charge of £500 a seat, raising £80,000 which will clear the building cost immediately and continue to give us a profit over the years.

We ended up ninth in Division Two in our first year, but like those football giants, Reading, Wigan and Watford, beware the second year when the opposition has learnt all about you.

Photograph courtesy of Chris Fell