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Millfield Old Boys Rugby Football Club 2011

Report by Alan M Burns Chairman

Now in its 26th year, the OM’s Rugby Club has experienced another testing year. The pressure to field a Vets side (over 35’s) in the Amsterdam 10’s Tournament, to partner our Academy 7’s in May was intense. Not only were several of our long serving players unavailable, but “ Dixy” (Richard Dix 1991) who was due to Captain this year’s team, was hospitalized 24 hours before we were due to fly and missed the Tournament. . He was was sorely missed but fortunately has made a full recovery and should be available for 2012. The efforts by all concerned in the last minute recruitment and financial support of our non-Millfield players enabled the Club to be competitive in this popular International Tournament. We now have potential reinforcements from our 1995 leavers who newly qualify, and hope that they will make themselves available to strengthen the squad in May 2012.

We have competed well in all Tournaments this year as one can see from the various reports by team managers. The efforts of the players and team managers who supported the Club throughout the season is much appreciated. Special thanks must go to Mel Chalke and her family for the catering at various tournaments, and to the OM Society, Paul Hockedy for all the work he does, Mac Grant for the compilation of the Club’s Accounts, Rod and Angela for their continued support and commitment. There will of course come a time when Angela and I will hang up our boots, so we do need to forward plan. If we can recruit a few enthusiasts to help manage the Club it would be an important step forward for the future.

Amsterdam 7s Rod Speed (1964-66; Day)

Day one brought us comfortable victories over TomTom (Netherlands) and UE Santboiana SEAT (Spain), but a disappointing defeat, 14-28 against Poland. A second defeat to Belgium on Sunday relegated us to the second tier competition for the Heineken Silver Boot, in which we won with something to spare against Amsterdam, Germany and Georgia to reach the Final.

We faced Gilbert Pups, a talented professional pick-up side, in what turned out to be a memorable final, played before 6000 loudly enthusiastic spectators. We played superbly to lead 17-12 before losing agonisingly to a fine last minute try. This was nevertheless a tremendous achievement for our young side, and confirmed Millfield as a firm favourite with the crowd here.

Thanks go, as so often, to Alan and Angela, and to Paul Hockedy who assembled the squad.

Photo: Paul Hockedy, James Tiarks, Adam Clayton, Jack Bentall, Sam Showering, Tom Hockedy, Alex Nielsen, Rod Speed
Carlton Littlechild, Frederick Gabbitass, James Cromwell, Dominic Jones, Joe Shimizu, James Mullens
 

Amsterdam Vets 10s Douglas O’Gorman (1988-93; Joan’s Kitchen)

Despite losing Richard Dix through illness we brought a quality squad to Amsterdam. We faced Dutch teams in the first rounds, coming through initially with an undistinguished win, then with a much more fluently victory. Our final game of the day was another comfortable win, against a keen Italian side. We finished the day pleased to be injury free.Our quarter-final game was against, the same Madrid side we had faced at this stage last year. They started with an early score but we were able to snatch the win in the closing seconds. Sadly, in the semi-final we failed to turn possession into points against our old foes the Marauders, and this tough, experienced side proved too strong this time. We came away feeling frustrated but convinced that next year we will be able to go all the way.

Photo: Alistair Metcalf, Daniel Vander, Nick Buoy, Patrick Chenery, Charlie Openshaw, Henry Goodburn Adam Vander, Rod Speed
James Haste, Paul Spencer, Kevin Cayley, Doug O’Gorman (Capt), Geraint Evans, Simon Ewin, Giles Macey
 

Old Boys v Recent Leavers Paul Hockedy (Former Parent)

The squad of 2010 leavers duly assembled for this annual match on 27^th March, thanks to Charles Incledon both for his energy in gathering the troops and for the colourful match shirts provided. In one of the most entertaining and close matches for many years the Leavers finally won against a valiant School team.

The Old Boys all contributed wholeheartedly, none more so than Matt Ward, Ben Moses, James Cromwell and Marco Mama. Dai Lakin arrived saying he could only play for five minutes (saving himself for the Swansea v Cardiff Varsity match) and in the end played nearly the whole match!

 John Mallett presented the Cup to the winning captain, Charles Incleton, and the match was followed by a fine lunch in the Gaskell Room.

Middlesex Club 7s Rod Speed (1964-66; Day)

This was young and relatively inexperienced squad and, although they failed to win a game, they played some very good sevens and all their games were close affairs, as the scores show: 12-26 vThe Army; 12-19 v Richmond; and 10-15 v Bristol University. We lacked the pace to finish off some very good passages of play and although we created lots of chances, the close support was not always there. No-one can doubt the commitment of the squad, led very ably by Freddie Chalke, and despite their lack of success they were a credit to the school.

Photo: Paul Hockedy, Freddie Chalke (Captain) Matt Ward, Sam Showering, Dan Masters, James Tiarks, Charles Incledon, Joe Shimizu, Rod Speed
Dan Venn, Dai Lakin, Jack Cooper, Kit Sheppard, Freddie Gabbitass
 

Cronk-Cunis U21s Rod Speed (1964-66; Day)

As a result of the hard work put in by Paul Hockedy we arrived with a full squad and, not surprisingly, this proved our most successful year in the event. .The boys played some attractive rugby right from the start and, apart from the first game which we won easily against King Edward VI, Southampton, the rest of the matches were hard fought affairs. Millfield played their usual brand of 15 man rugby and were not afraid to run the ball from almost anywhere, and we did enough to win through against Monmouth and Pangbourne, 8-0 and 13-10 respectively. In the semi-final both sides had chances to clinch the game but it was Peter Symonds College who crucially benefited from a kind bounce after a kick ahead to score the deciding try. They went on to win the Final. It was particularly helpful to have Trevor Greenhill with us as coach and manager this year, and we enjoyed the strong support of parents and friends, and of course, Mel Chalke’s excellent refreshments.

Squad: James Cromwell (Captain), Kit Sheppard, Sam Saunders, Demetri Sofocleous Joe Ruston, Jake Parker, Lewis Jones Henry Quinlan, Oliver Davies, Elliot Quirke, Luke Flower, Dan Cheers, Matt Ward, George Cooper Christian Waite, Hamish Malone, Will Farrell, Harry Cox, Rob Spiers, Reis Buckland (Guest), Callum Bennett (Guest), Henry Bailey

WOODEN SPOON GOLF Giles Legg (1983-88; St Anne’s)

Ben Pothecary (22), Kevin Caley (15) Patrick Chenery (22) and Giles Legg (1) assembled at Knole Park Golf Club and after a safari ride through the bracken, eventually got underway at 0900 from the 11th tee. Giles and Kevin both missed right on this very long par 3 but Patrick and Ben both struck magnificent irons to the heart of the green. Alas, three putts each resulted in just the four points. Some bright play in the middle of the round was undone by two consecutive holes where we totalled a mere 3 points. However, our finish was spectacular: Ben and Patrick both found the green in two on a difficult dogleg Par 4 where they each had two shots. We completed the hole in net four for a massive eight Stableford points and boosted our total to a respectable 78 points.

We were treated to a fine meal at the presentation where we discovered the winning score was 86 points. But for those two holes …

Giles Legg (Capt) Alan Burns, Kevin Cayley, Patrick Chenery, Ben Pothecary