News & EventsLatest NewsCalendar
Virtual Fixtures

Virtual Fixtures

Ed Merry20 Jul 2020 - 11:29
Share via
FacebookTwitter
https://www.pitchero.com/clubs

The season is done!

Starting in May, in order to keep the team together during lockdown, a series of away matches were organised at the grounds of next season's likely opponents. The twist, there was no rugby involved, just travelling!

Doesn't sound like much fun but each week, starting with the most local side, Colchester, individuals would try to rack up enough miles in their personal fitness routines to equal the distance to the ground. There was never any intention that players would actually run or ride to the relevant ground but some had other ideas.

The first week was a great success. 23 runners and riders took to the roads and only two failed to record the 14.5 miles needed to make the 3pm deadline (kick off!). The same can't be said for each week as the next three all had just 16 making the target.

A concerted effort in week five to get back on track with 30 participants but with the mileage needed creeping up now beyond 26 miles (Thurston) still only 15 made the cut. Weeks six and eight were disappointing, although the distances were now over 30 miles and many players had started shortening their distances in readiness for preseason sprinting, a good number of participants but sadly less than 10 per week reaching the target.

There were some 'superstars' emerging, regular weekly totals of over 50 miles thanks to some long bike rides, and these participants were dived for the season finale. In groups of eight, the weekly totals were combined to see if the teams could run and cycle virtually to Halstead's twinned town Haubourdin in northern France.

Only one team failed to make the 180 mile target, falling short somewhere between Calais and Lille. The other three teams all made the distance comfortably and one team could have go on to Paris!

Over the course of the nine week season, the team covered an amazing 7,257.34 miles. That's a return trip to Twickenham more than 58 times!

The stand out individuals were Matt Skeats from Monday's O2 Touch sessions who weighed in with 646.9 miles, Oli Cuthbert with 638.4 miles and Charlie Townrow who was 0.5 miles away from 600. Veterans Ed Merry (577.7) and Keane Steel (565.8) can both be proud of their contributions.

If anyone has photo's of their experiences please do feel free to pass them on and we can put a link here for others to access.

Further reading