This weeks instalment comes from the man who keeps the club ticking over financially as well as on the pitch! With training beginning in a minimal format following guidance from the RFU this may be our last Tryline Treasures until the season begins up again. Below is how the season looked to Mark;

Looking back on games is something I’m used to doing as a match reporter, often embellishing, fabricating or being purposely vague when I can’t remember exactly what has happened…it’s honestly harder than it looks, playing and remembering what happened, even at age 28!

Anyway, I digress, this season has been one of up’s and downs. Thankfully more up’s than down’s but like any journey over time, you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Rough was exactly how I felt after our first game of the season at home to Staines. A bare fifteen, many playing out of position on a hot day was not ideal, but we dug in persevered and got a victory.

I then disappeared off the land of the rising sun for three weeks and found myself up at 3am Japanese time as our results were announced and the winning streak continued.
Ealing was a real highlight, playing on the 4G in a proper stadium (unless you’re Premiership Rugby in which case, then they deem it not), again in the most awful conditions. This time the cold, we battled gallantly, with the game escaping from us at the end, but a bell weather of how far we’d come, against a well-coached, technically good side in Ealing 1871.

We’ll have a second bite of the cherry when we play them again in the Floodlit Cup Final…hopefully at full, or a new level of strength and depth. January hit and we hit a tough run. I, and probably everyone else eventually got bored of playing Actonians and Old Millhillians for five weeks on the spin (one week in the worst conditions known to man) so the win against West London (a 8-3 classic….okay, match reporters expediency) was a welcome relief.

With Covid19 closing in and the season in doubt, we saved our best for last finally beating Ruislip (fourth/fifth time I’ve tried) to get to the final of the Floodlit Cup. Sadly the final is on hold but we’ll be looking forward to it none-the-less as a curtain opener to next season.
Going back to the subject of smooth…Joe Elwig. My goodness…ginger, handsome and runs like an odds on favourite at Newmarket, galloping and evading tackles like something last seen in the Matrix, low level prose from a rank amateur journalist like I, doth barely do him justice.

I think I’ve barely scratched the surface, but have so far discovered:
• Best looking ginger on team
• Best skiing ginger on the team
• Best economist on the team (Note- hasn’t even finished his degree yet)
• Legend (subsequently determined to be irrefutable fact after West London) that he taught Neil Jenkins everything he knows about kicking
• What fine vocals and piano playing abilities he has (requests are available- find @jelwig on Instagram for more)
• He has the poise and guile of David Silva in the tackle
• Is the better twin, I don’t even need to meet the other…
• Has made purple T-shirts trendy again
• Would make a fine spouse, acquaintance, partner, FWB, associate, Samaritan for any young lady who would happen to come across such a treasure trove of a man (I can provide references on request)

In all, a real rollercoaster ride, but life would be boring if it wasn’t. We may not know exactly when, but we’ll be back, ready and raring to go again. Stay Safe!