Vipers Rugby Football Club

On a cold but dry and bright afternoon the Vipers were preparing to take on Northampton Old Scouts. With Sollo’s away in China visiting ‘our Mark’ and Simon Loines unavailable the team was left in the capable hands of ‘Honest’ Bob Watson, John ‘the needle’ Haynes and the ever enthusiastic Andrew ‘Dobber’ Tomlinson. On the pitch Lee ‘Sin Bin!’ Simmons and ‘Rumble’ called the shots.

Booty, President Steve Harris and Nosher arrived in plenty of time for the buffet and pre match drinks. Joined by Rod, Kelv, Mick and Dave.

The buffet was a superb affair from most generous host Bob Lettis (President) of the Scouts.

There was a mixture of sandwiches which included cheese and pickle, ham and mustard and tuna. Pork pie and sausage rolls aplenty, bargis, some weird fishy things, and ample cheese and biscuits. There were even cocktail sticks for picking olives and mini pickled onions. (You could tell we were in the South). Sadly no scotch eggs though!

On to the game.... We dominated for 20 minutes and then let two soft tries in. The first as a result of Dobber inviting them to play kiss chase instead of tackling and the second by just being daft. The Vipers came back and after a nice move Lee Simmons put a left footed kick over the top for winger Dan Ford to chase. The crowd were baying ‘stop bloody kicking the......... Oh great kick Simmo as it bounced up in to Fordy’s lap and he ran it in. As he said afterwards and says every week ‘ just give me the ball and I will score!’ Conversion successful and we were back in the game. Only for us to give another silly penalty away and then concede try.

At this point Booty, Steve Harris and Nosher had got the arse and went for a brew. Steve had coffee, whilst Nosher and Booty opted for a nice cup a tea, which came to £2.80. ‘Do we get scones with it for that price?’

Back to the game.... A dominant second half performance from Vipers with Substitutes Adam White and Paul ‘Mini Booty’ making a reel impact. Dobber was the last replacement on and got straight in to the game. 15 minutes of pressure finally told on the Scouts and as Rumble was attempting to pick up a loose ball accidently grubber kicked it through the posts and then tripped over and fell on the ball. (the ball survived the impact just) and we were able to convert. 19-14 down with just minutes to go. With the crowd who would have been biting there nails off if not still full from the ample buffet cheering them on, Vipers failed to score and we lost.

A game that could have been won if they had only not given away 15 penalties each half and got turned over on numerous occasions by a very capable Scouts back row. They were no mugs and we nearly nicked it in a game were commitment was fantastic at times with some players tackling themselves in to the ground. So all bares well for Huntingdon next week. Good luck!