Another great day out at Broad Plain RFC, and another great day for PROPS!

Officially this was a draw. The true result was 46-31 win to PROPS against Ashfield Prison Services. We were lucky with the weather, as it always seems to be with any PROPS games to be honest. The forecast was apparently not that good, but the afternoon was all rather nice on the pitch. We had a strong side, with loads of forwards, but very little backs. To the point that we played Ant Crocker in centre, instead of his usual second row position.
We didn’t have have a full back, until Smeagol (Chris Edwards from Yatton RFC) showed up when called by his mates from Yatton to play. We had Ian Spiller, Dan and Nick Wakefield, and Stuart Hill from Yatton, great work from Stu in gathering them all up, and great show from Yatton RFC! All new players to PROPS. Also new players on the board with Vince Murrell and Joe Fletcher from Clifton. And just as we went to half time, and by then quite tired too, Dave Hilton showed up. Happy days!
There was a lot of good stuff, some not so good stuff and some pretty funny stuff too. As Ashfield Prison look almost certain to score the first try of the game, their scrum-half rather conveniently fell off on his own, with the line begging and we could not believe our luck on that. But the tries did come and quite a lot of them too.
As I was playing all game, to the despair of Mad dog Beet and Clarky, it’s almost impossible to say who scored what and when. But we had 2 certain tries that didn’t happen as we spilled the ball with less than a metre to go, and tries that we gave away to Ashfield with some “creative” but kind of “didn’t work at all” phases of play. Some of our players like Vince were playing their first game in ages recovering from injury. But everyone did really well, and stuck at it, which eventually paid off.
Our referee on the day was Dave Yates, who was really good and did all he could to keep the game flowing. The most unusual try was from Dan Wakefield (Yatton RFC) as he picked up a loose ball on the floor, Ashfield believing a knock-on call from earlier was to be called and pretty much left the ball alone, but the referee playing advantage meant the ball was still live, so Dan’s try was perfectly legitimate!
It was tough going though, Ashfield had plenty of resources and players willing to make life difficult for us. Their outside centre was a hand full, and knew he could create havoc too. Their other centre does not play Rugby regularly, but football instead. He had a great pace and side stepped his way to the try line a couple of times rather nicely.
We all felt tired after all this, but all for a good cause and we all had a good afternoon of great fun playing Rugby. We raised over £300 for PROPS on the day, which is great stuff. Sadly some injuries to Barry Stone, Nick and Dan Wakefield made the game a little less funny for us all. Broad Plain RFC were again fantastic hosts. The pitch was in mint condition, the facilities superb as always, and cracking food after the game.
Thanks to Martyn, Debbie and everyone else at Broad Plain RFC for their great work. Our next PROPS game is on Sunday 27 December, at Thornbury RFC. Food and excellent raffle prizes available yet again. Please let me know if you are available, not that long to Christmas already!

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