Floodlit Rugby came to Brownacres on Friday under the amazing new floodlights ( most of us remember years training in semi darkness every Tuesday and Thursday with regular suggestions to put a bell in the ball to give the boys jumping at the back of the lineout a fighting chance).

I’m pleased to report that we were able to field a very strong Owls squad of 26 players (see photo attached) and we just failed to pull off a famous win against a strong Harlequins team who beat us by over 40 points last season. The final score was 24-17 to the Quins and whilst this gives us a losing bonus point it doesn’t tell you that we spent the last ten minutes of the game camped in the Quins 22 searching for the equalizer.

Following a good warm up led by birthday boy and skipper for the evening Luke Goggin we made a very un-owls like flying start scoring two brilliant tries in the first ten minutes. Both tries came as our halfbacks Clarkey and Joe made the most of quality ball coming from a dominant Owls pack. Great backs moves led to a flying Fred Hedger outpacing the Quins defence to ground a kick through from Joe to score our first try after 5 minutes and the second try came following a great break by Joe and quick ball from Clarkey creating space for Amos to crash over with 3 Quins defenders on his back.

Having been so dominant we then got on the wrong side of the referee at the breakdown which allowed Quins back into the game. What followed was a period of Quins possession and very committed Owls defence with big his and bodies on the line before one penalty to many allowed Quins to exploits a quick tap penalty out wide. Despite our obvious dominance up front and some of the best back play by any Owls team in years we still gave away key penalties from great attacking positions which allows Quins to keep putting us back in our 22 which finally resulted in a second Quins try.

A suitably fired up Vandals pack regained possession from the kick off and what followed was the try of the evening scored by Barge (playing his first game in 13 years since his career ending injury in Jersey) and as a result of fantastic handling amongst the backs before Clarkey hit Barge at pace on an amazing angle with a behind the back pass see Barge fly between the posts. The half ended with the Owls leading 17-12. Both sides made lots of changes at the break with the Owls having the luxury of changing their whole pack including the welcome return of Dukey and Worzel . The Quins added real bulk to their line up and this paid dividends with them scoring two unanswered tries despite brave and committed defence from the Owls. This put Quins 24-17 ahead with 20 minutes to go and I’m proud to say that rather than throw in the towel we came back fighting and could easily scored an equalizing try at the end that would have been a fair result.

There were to many good performances to single out an Owls man of the match but here are my highlights;

· 26 Players, a great spirit and a new younger generation of Owls enjoying the pleasure of playing a great game with their comrades.(spread the word)
· Helping Barge overcome his demons and getting him back out on the paddock where he coached with such distinction “He still has game”
· The back play, ball handling and breaks all evening were great to see.
· Being able to Bring Luke Goggin`s Dad on in the last few minutes. Over a 100 years between them (is this an Owls record for Father/Son partnerships?)
· Wearing the Old style Vandals jersey once again
· Seeing so many 1st XV players coming to cheer us on.

Next weekend we head to Jersey where in true Vandals tradition we will be aiming to win on and off the pitch.

Our next game is against the old enemy Cobham under the lights at Brownacres on Friday 23rd October. On that evening we will be honouring a great Vandal Paul Mills who will be celebrating his 50TH Birthday that evening. I have already had a number of Paul`s former teammates committing to attend and Paul`s brother Peter who actually introduced me to the Vandals and who is now captain of Staffordshire vets will be travelling down to play alongside his brother. If you are receiving this you must have played with Millser during your time as a Vandal so please put it in your diary and come down to support Millser on the 23rd.

In the meantime let’s try and support the third team who led by Alex and Dukey will be aiming to put out a third team every Saturday over the next few weeks.

Cheers

Kev