The Bay Veterans team came out of retirement again on a chilly night and had a very enjoyable and friendly mid week Wednesday evening match against an Abergele RFC who it should be noted had many players still playing regular club rugby. On arrival at the club it was pointed out that we were probably given away a ten years per man age advantage but we did have  weight advantage on our side, but more about that later. The Bay Vets had warmed up in the usual manner i.e. turning the heating up  in the car on the way to the ground, sitting near the radiator in the changing room, and for those who still need it, a quick puff on the paper clad  tipped inhaler!. 

The Bay  started very well and for the first five minutes of play we were continually in the Abergele 22 m area and on two occasions the Bay forwards were nearly over the line with some good driving mauls and rucks and our weight advantage was coming in handy, well for the time being. However Abergele scored a try much against the run of play after 10 minutes  from a 5 metre tap penalty which was successfully  converted. After 18 minutes the  Bay then shipped another try when the nifty Abergele Inside Centre showed some good footwork, side stepping a couple of the Colwyn Bay Dinosaurs grazing in midfield to go under the posts for a 14:0 lead. The Bay hit back again with some very assertive forward play but could not turn our extensive possession and territory into the points. In the last five minutes of the second half Abergele continued to dominate especially at the line out and at half time  it was 14:nil to Abergele, we were down, but not out.

In the second half  the Bay made some tactical positional changes moving the wise old sages to key positions which improved the flow of play. A quick ball from the scrum in the Bay half was quickly moved through the still fast hands of the Fly Half and Centres and Cameron McMullen made a good line break and shipped the ball to Martin Kane on the Right Wing on the 22m metre line. The Flying Scotsman who now looks more like ”Thomas the Tank “ and last scored a try when Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister side stepped the Winger and scored in the corner for an unconverted try. The threat of  a Bay come back galvanised Abergele and obviously the thought of their club scalp being taken by this bunch of SAGA members was too much to take and they stepped up their forward play. A  quick heel from their hooker enabled  their lively and comparably youthful scrum half to go for a very good solo try. This total was added to by Abergele with ten  minutes to go with a further move by their forwards to give a score of 5:28.However the Bay Vets did not give up and after a charge down the ever present Dave Browning for the Bay picked up and went over for good forwards try which was successfully converted to make the final score a very credible 12:28. The try Scorers for Abergele RFC  were Mark Bilworth, ”AJ”, Paul Myers, and Simon Hughes.

This was a very enjoyable mid week evening match which was rounded off with a complimentary club beer in the changing room to kick start our metabolism, provided by our vocal and supportive coach Mr Dave Jones, and this was followed by a great curry provided by the catering team. For those who coach in the CBRFC Junior Section this is an ideal opportunity to show your respective Junior Teams that you can still do it albeit slightly slower than in your previous years. The more we have in the selection pool the better our standard will become as 30 minutes each way does go rather quickly for some (and not so quickly enough for others). We hope to have another match in January 2011 again on members night for the cheap beer and if any other players over 35 years of age wish to join in please contact Dave Jones on 07966 616510 so that you too the following day can “ache in places that you did not know could ache”.

Many thanks to Dave Jones for organising this match, to the Abergele RFC players for entering into the spirit of the game, to the referee Craig Roberts for refereeing with distinction and to the catering team for great after match hospitality. And always remember  “the older we Veterans rugby players get, the better we were”.