Saturday saw The Ath family come together for our annual Summer Rounders day, this year planned to coincide with the “giant cheque” presentation to the club’s chosen charity, LOROS.

Thanks to the Herculean effort made by a handful of club members taking on a charity bike ride from Leicester to Skegness (see earlier article), work by Craig Stevens organising post-match raffles, and the general goodness and giving nature of The Ath club members in general, we were able to present a cheque for £1,833.17 to Debbie Dickman, of Loros.

Debbie explained that the donation would pay for around 12 days care from specialist palliative nurses so to all those who made donations during the year both LOROS and Aylestone Athletic RFC thank you from the bottom of our hearts – and please remember to continue giving what you can during the coming season so we can present something similar to Debbie next year.

The rounders itself was as competitive an affair as you would expect with lots of encouragement for the children taking part (and no quarter given to the rest). Ryan “son of Fingers” captained the winning team, whilst Zoe “spouse of Sponge” did her best to rally her team of losers (yes, the author was on Ryan’s team ;-) ) and an enjoyable family day was had by all.

In addition to what has become known as the “Rounders Rout”, there was a Great Ath Bake Off taking place. Entries included a ¼ brown bread sandwich, a shop bought cream tea, and a genuine home-made brownie, amongst others. I believe the Cream Tea won the day on the basis of looks alone much to the disgust of Mr Marandi who had slaved for days over the brownies which were generally described as “a bit dry”.

From a 3pm start of both Rounders and consumption of alcoholic beverages, there were still survivors sending photos from Hakimo at 2am on Sunday morning, so another successful Ath Social can be entered into the record. One sad note, however, insofar as no-one has yet seen Remi alive since his 4th Jaeger-bomb. Search parties are currently scouring the Old Horse garden armed with smelly cheeses and restorative glasses of Bordeaux and will report back later if they find him curled up in the bushes.

Please remember, Pre-Season starts Wednesday 2nd August – 6.45pm, Victoria Park.

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