Westcombe Park 43 CS Rugby 1863 0

CS came up woefully short on a day when any self respecting duck might have stayed indoors and any thoughts of a sixth successive straight league victory were quickly consigned to the bottom of the pond.

Westcombe Park, a regular Civil Service adversary in the days before leagues and a club that has since then reached the heady heights of Level 3 but has since slipped down a little, were quicker in thought and more resolute in deed and just happened also, as their supporters said, to be at their strongest all season. That, the Stags probably were not although it was by no means a weak selection, but neither that fact nor the truly atrocious conditions - persistent rain, a biting wind and a sodden surface on which one could slide ten yards - can provide any excuse for such a lacklustre display. The elements it is often suggested are a leveller so one might be tempted to think," Thank God for that ! " as, had the weather been otherwise, " It could have been a whole lot worse," but that would, hopefully, be wrong as no one could say that the Stags do not actually infinitely prefer firmer and truer surfaces !

Three tries in each half to Combe tell the story and - although the Stags had the odd moment in their hosts' 22 - they scored nothing and some might say were lucky to get that. An early attempt at a penalty by James Houstoun that veered to the left as it barely left the ground at least brought an element of comedy to the proceedings : this was not Bill MacLaren's " drunken haggis " but a barely airborn creature that must have been totally paralytic !

And that was all there was left to do : take solace in drink. There is always another day of course and it cannot get worse than that, can it?

PS The pictures on Westcombe Park's website are not too much fun to look at either!