It kicked off with a couple of newbies, continued with a bit of co-operative substitutions and finished with the conclusion of a career.
The final score was 45-34 with 13 tries in the match, but the day was only possible because of the combined efforts of Littlehampton, St Francis and Crawley resulting in a Barbarian style starting XV.
Hove forwards led the way with a solid scrum and effective rucking and our stand in hooker, Ben Potter, was a revelation in proving you can throw the ball in straight at every line out. Their domination resulted in a hattrick of tries for Jimmy & one a piece for Carl & Ian T. When the backs finally managed to wrestle the ball from them, they contributed with tries from David and Alex S and showed great control from Ross at 10 and power with Danish and Mark, our captain for the day. It is often a lonely day for our back 3 Alex/Lee/David O, but they got their fair share of the ball and Alex S was busy kicking 4 conversions. The versatile Danish even offered to kick 2 conversions in front of the posts for the opposition, but sadly missed them both. Maybe his allegiance to Hove put him off?
Alex and James both played their first match for the Vets and not only played great rugby, they were also supportive in playing for the opposition when needed, which is what make us all love this sport! Alejo, on loan from the Beef, embodied this attitude by playing the full 60 minutes, 40 of which were for the opposition, this extended to Morgan, Carl, Henry, David O etc who were all happy to help.
It was fitting that with so many Hove Vets on the pitch Giles entered the fray with 20 minutes to go, caught the ball and beat the first defender with a swish of his (yes still his own) hips. He will still be playing on Monday evenings, but has decided to retire from contact rugby, at the difficult to believe, age of 60, an example to us all.