Didsbury Toc H Vets vs Duckinfield/Aldwinians Vets 20/11/2016
Four Senior Sides.
A Ladies Team that’s tearing up trees.
A thriving Junior Section.
And now an official Vets side.

First things first. Massive thanks to Rick Massingham for organising this and utilising *that* little black book to pull together what without doubt was the oldest, greyest, most experienced side that Toc has fielded in many a year. There was more pre-match strapping on display than in the Egyptian Section at Manchester Museum. Indeed, Howellsey had strapped his dodgy knee together with what looked like the lagging from his boiler….

This was a Veteran side in its purest form – lengths of time since individuals had last taken the field were traded like war stories. This was coarse rugby at its resolute coarsest.
If you were to choose a collective noun for such a group then pate, paunch and plod must surely be at the top of the list

Toc H’s roll call included such luminaries as Harry Harrigan, Gareth and Greg Price, Gaz Oakley, Justin Wildgoose Ian Vicary and Simon Sinclair. There must have been at least half a dozen ex Toc captains on the field so to win the coin toss should have been a formality – we didn’t…

Duckinfield were the opposition in this inaugural vet’s game and fielded one Andrew Poopola formally of this parish and several Toc players graciously donned the opponent’s shirts as they were light of numbers.

The match started at a pace note seen since the Sloth on Planet Earth stirred itself to answer the call of its potential mate. A tight opening fifteen minutes saw the sides evenly matched with Didsbury looking slightly stronger in the pack with Duckinfield/Aldwinians looking quicker in the backs – notably with Pappy calling the shots and assisted by a big centre pairing and the borrowed Richie Bray looking spritely.

Simon Sinclair recreated the infamous and much missed ‘Didsbury Dip’ by falling over in shock when the ball came out to him. Two quick scores saw Didsbury 14 points down and a long afternoon loomed. A further score saw us trail by 19 points at half time.

A round of Cod Liver Oil shots and a rousing half time team talk from Gareth Price saw Didsbury start the second half brightly. Early pressure paid dividends when Toc won possession in the Duckinfield/Aldwinians 22 and played the ball through several pairs of hands before Greg Price fed the ball to Steven Gill who bundled through two tackles for the score. And pulled his hamstring in the process…

The scores evened up and the game entered the last five minutes 28 apiece after Richie Bray secured the honour of scoring for both sides finishing a fine running move from Didsbury that was started by a break from Harry Harrigan that included a show and go and a rumble that came close to registering on the Richter Scale. A whoop of appreciation was the least this Godzillaesque run deserved.

Unfortunately, Toc conceded a late try and were denied the honour of not losing the opening chapter of Toc H veterans Rugby.The result was largely immaterial as the game was testimony to the allure of the club and the game itself.

It was a fantastic occasion to see such characters pull on the Black and Amber and the consensus was very more of the same please. But can we give it a few weeks….

Get in touch with Mass or Arthur for details of the next game, which will likely be in February.