Results - Saturday 25th April
OLD YARDLEIANS WIN EDWARDIAN TOURNAMENT AGAIN
For the second year running Old Yardleians won the annual Veterans Rugby Tournament at Edwardians Rugby Club. Played between over thirty-five year olds from local West Midlands teams the tournament is in memory of former Edwardian player Malcolm Weller. The first stage of the event was in a league format. Old Yards beat an Edwardian XV and Civil Service but lost narrowly to a youthful Camp Hill side by a penalty to nil. Finishing second Old Yards qualified for the semi final of the main competition against Ashby. The first half had defences on top until a wayward kick by Ashby's Darren Collingwood was caught by David Hanson of Old Yards. The ball went through the hands of the three quarters until it reached winger Junior Williams who sprinted to the corner to score. Half time 5-0. In the second half Old Yards cut loose with tries from David Rollins and Billy Bucknall. Rollins also added a conversion as Old Yards won the semi final 19-0. In the final it was a chance for revenge as the opposition were Camp Hill. A tense final saw Old Yards with many opportunities that they did not take. The teams turned round at half time with no score and the second half seemed to be heading the same way. Then Marcus Hope stole a ball from Camp Hill at the back of their scrum near halfway. The impressive Phil Evans took it on making twenty metres before passing it to Steve Grainger who outpaced the Camp Hill defence over 30 metres to score in the corner. From the kick off Old Yards secured the ball and controlled it until the final whistle. Final score Old Yardleians 5 Camp Hill 0. Captain Steve Grainger was presented with the Malcolm Weller Bowl and Old Yardleians went on to celebrate with their traditional end of season dresses night out. Phil Evans was named as Old Yardleians man of the tournament. The hosts Edwardians also had a good day with their side winning the plate tournament.
FUTURE EVENTS:
Saturday 2nd May
President's Day in honour of Steve Sidwell our fantastic President (he asked me to say that).
Starting at 12 noon there is :
- 12.00 Under 8's game
- 12.30 Development team game
- 14:00 Under 13's game
- 15:00 Finishing with a Vets game - Sid has got a load of ringers in this year cos he got beat last year
- Plus Burgers, Hot Dogs, Rolls, Drinks and a good Old Yards day of fun
- Then from 17.15 there is a live band as we party the night away
Friday 8th May
Club Annual Dinner - Speaker Darren Garforth a Leicester Tigers Prop with 25 caps for England, see Steve Painter/Gail Orton for tickets at £30 each
Saturday 9th May
Mini & Juniors Presentation Evening
Club Stuff:
Well done Russell
Congratulations to Russell Earnshaw and his Solihull Bees team who became National Division Two Champions last Saturday when they beat Redruth. Russell who coaches Solihull has been up to Old Yardleians twice this season at the request of Steve Cunningham to put our players through their paces.
More Yardleians take up the whistle
Darren Collingwood and Steve Cunningham are currently on a RFU Referees course running over four weeks. It's good for Old Yards to have referees who ref weekly as the Refs Society are more likely to give us refs for our 2nds/3rds. Well done lads though for Darren it is a bit like poacher turned gamekeeper.
Lions in South Africa
Remember during the summer that Old Yardleians has Sky TV so you can come up and watch all the Lions games live.
Anything to say
Please email me details of any Old Yards information, trivia or jokes so I can add them to the next update.
Mark Baldwin, 29th April 2009
mark.xc@blueyonder.co.uk