Carrying the Olympic Flame

Many congratulations to Steve Ratcliffe, who has been chosen to carry the Olympic Flame on Wednesday 23rd May.
It is marvellous that Steve has received the recognition that he so richly deserves, as someone who has been instrumental in providing so many sporting opportunities for young people in the local Community.

Without Steve’s enthusiasm and passion, we would not have been able to acquire Newlands Park and I hate to think would have happened to our Minis & Juniors Section if this fantastic venue had not been purchased. Steve will carry the Flame as an ambassador of the Club and we should be extremely proud that we will be represented on this unique occasion.

However, it is very disappointing that, despite my several emails to LOCOG, Steve will be carrying the Flame through Swindon and not Cheltenham. I have protested to the people connected with the Relay and whilst they sympathise with us, they rightly say that we should be very pleased that Steve is actually carrying the Flame, which was a 14—1 chance. It will be hoped a number of people will travel to Swindon to cheer Steve on and we will be putting details on the website.

Cheltenham 18 v 26 Bletchley

Cheltenham produced a performance lacking in cohesion as they lost their las home league of the season to lowly Bletchley by 18-23 Writes Derek M Clifford. The game started in front of a large crowd boosted by supporters of Cheltenham Ladies there to celebrate long serving player Tammy Shakespeare 20 years with the club. It was not until the 14th minute before the deadlock was broken as Bletchley’s Star man Phil Harman caught the Home defence wanting for a unconverted try. Cheltenham regrouped and put the Visitors to the sword with Bletchley going offside and Josh Herbert kicking the penalty. Not long after Cheltenham gained a 1 point lead when Herbert was on target with a 2rd penalty. Both sides were reduced to 14 men with Teddy Saunders for Cheltenham and Josh Sprules for the Visitors seeing yellow for a altercation. The Cheltenham lead was short lived as Harman went over for a second unconverted try after 32 minutes. Right on the stroke of half time Harman added a easy penalty for a 13-6 lead.

Back on the horse!

What a great competition this has been already- the way it’s worked out would have been a marketers dream! Crazy results, unbelievable score-lines and tiny margins separating the top 6 teams. We had a good trip over to Buckingham at the weekend, and while we don’t usually talk a lot of rugby on these ‘long-distance’ coach rides, it was fun to watch the Living with Lions DVD from the 1997 South African tour. While it was a bit painful for me to relive the Newlands test, as I was there in ’97 as a student in the cheap seats, it was a great testament to the unifying force of rugby that a small group of us from different nationalities (we have English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, South African & Zimbabwean players) and career fields could enjoy something together that happened 15yrs ago on the other side of the world.

Buckingham 34 v 35 Cheltenham

A weakened Cheltenham gain their first victory of 2012 coming from behind against relegation threatened Buckingham on a rock on floyd field in a 9 try feast of end to end rugby writes Derek M Clifford. Buckingham took a early lead when fly half Will Kindle caught Cheltenham flatfooted for a unconverted try.Cheltenham hit back with 2 Josh Herbert penalties. But Buckingham fighting for their SW1 East lives came back with a Andy White penalty.Then the home side extended their lead when White eluded several would be tacklers for a try and conversion to lead 15-6.

Inches…

It was a real shame we could not round off our improved form over the last two weeks with either a victory or a couple of bonus points to carry us forward in our battle to get into the SW 1 East leagues top four teams. Given our improved player availability, the growing confidence and improving performances, I think the bye weekend has come at a good time for us and gives a well-deserved week off for the boys. I hope that it will refresh everyone after whats been a tough part of the season, and hopefully we can come back next week, ready to challenge for a top four spot. Looking at the league points/ positions, we might well need four wins from four outings, but given our pre-Christmas form and the glimpses of what we can do from the last two games, there’s no reason why we can’t do that. Someone asked me if this was a daunting task & my reply was that it’s not daunting, it’s simply a challenge for us as a group and as a team. Both the defeat and the manner of it at Witney were frustrating, especially in view of the promising signs we started seeing in our performances. But we are in the results business and at the end of the day we’ve got two losses, which we felt were winnable so we’re not happy about it. How we respond now both in training and in our remaining fixtures will provide some insight into our character both as individuals and as a group.

Game on…

Despite the result not going our way Saturday against Swindon, we are probably in the best shape physically and mentally that we have been since the Coney Hill game 7 weeks ago. This was the strongest squad we’ve been able to select since our table topping efforts of the first half of the season and it showed in the way we played for long periods of the game, particularly in the 2nd half. The change-room was like a morgue when we got in after the game, but that just goes to show how much playing for each other and for the Club means to these blokes. It was fitting that Hamish Wrafter scored a try on his last appearance for the Tigers this season before he heads off to Australia- we wish him a great time down under and look forward to seeing him back in red and black in the not too distant future. Other absentees for next weekend look likely to be: Ryan Hill, Matt Francis, Lee Douglas, Mark Whitney & James Saunders- still not ideal but it certainly reads better than the 8-12 players a week we’ve been missing over the past 7 weeks! There were a lot of positives both from a team perspective, as well as individual performances- our scrum went very well, our team organisation and structure were good and as ever, I am proud of all our guys for their effort, commitment and character.