2006 Archives

2005 Archives

2004 Archives

2007 Newsletter

New scrummer born into this world in February. Callum Michael Morgan Whidden clocked in at 9lbs. Pleased parents, Doug and Jessica are not going to throw him back.

Reverse Draw Many thanks to the many who attended and supported Twilighter Charities…har, har, har. 141 tickets were sold and the last 3 out were Dave Milne, Mike Arborak and Brian Hayes. (Does Mai-Lis know about your good fortune Fog? Or should I just keep my big mouth shut.) Paul Dunning had a good time…helped with the book-keeping, that is to say who went out when…his records looked like the Da Vinci Code though. Another great spread from the cooking crew and some steady bar tendering from young Steve Du Breuil (Did I get that spelling right, Steve?) Steve’s an engineer and has been looking for another entry to flesh out his resume, so saying that he’s been a bartender at a Twilighter Reverse Draw should prove to the world that he can cope with pressure.

Heard somewhere during the night that our first president, Mr. Hugh Stroyan had suffered a mini cahuna. We certainly hope that all is well at the Stroyan household.

Item Gord Sanderson relates a story about a ferry trip where he was wearing one of those T-shirts from the Nanaimo Tournament from a few years ago…you remember the VIAGARA shirts. It seems a couple of young girls came up to him and asked him if he worked for Viagara. Gord says, “ No…but Viagara works for me!”

SOB’s Feb 25 Now this game ended up 2-0 advantage SOB’s. What has happened, it seems to me is that those rascally Semiamooites have taken advantage of our good nature and slipped some (a lot of) chronologically challenged youngsters onto their squad. Oh well, we’re lucky it’s only a game. Both teams went to DEFCON 1 and the Boys in Blue could not find a way to crack the SOB line.

Alex Morrison came out of a loose with ball in hand, spit flying from mouth, eyes wild, like a steer that got loose on the kill floor. I tried to point him downfield and back pedal out of his way but the bugger ran me down anyway. Keith “Nightmare” MacNamara was rambling all over the pitch challenging the SOB’s to stop him and unfortunately …they did. Our own free spirit, Dunc, got Man of the Match for his heroics at standoff.

Will Rogers says there’s 3 types of men. Those who learn by reading, those who learn by observation and then there’s those that have to pee on the electric fence themselves.

Nanaimo Mar 4 OK this is what you get when you run out of backs. 4-1 Yoos-To-Bees. Truck crashed the line for the lone Twit score. Gary Sabin went for a good long run but could not go all the way. Harvey, Mike “Skippy” Stratton and Martin put in a long afternoon on the 3 line trying to cope with the wily X-Bees. Martin even required a time-out…to vomit. The Baron of Rugby was out on the wing and had a hell of a game…for him.

After the initial shock (2 or 3 quick tries) Twits tried to keep the ball in the scrum with Alex, Nightmare, Malcolm, Truck and Nick crashing around the greensward. Unfortunately none save Truck were able to score. Nick and Kim had a great big collision at one point. I think Kim was able to pick up some Frequent Flier Miles for the hit.

Beauchamp wants me to put something in the letter about him but I really can’t think of anything to say.

Rules courtesy Bill Grist ­ Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

Amalgamation of East Side Gentlemen and Legends Apr 1 This game turned into a pretty good game with Pee Wee, Sandy MacDonald and Chuck Jung scoring. Chuck scored after Harvey and Rob MacDonald did the grunt work. The final ended up 3-3.

Evergreens Apr 15 ended up 2-2. Don Jenner and Malcolm notching one each. It looked like a winnable game but turned into a Rocky Horror Show when it turned out a lot of people could not catch a cold much less that white thing. It was nice to see Colin MacKenzie out to see what all the hub-bub about Over-40 rugby was all about.

Valley Apr 22 The Twits’ sad dearth of backs became abundantly clear in Langley (injuries, other commitments et al) as erstwhile breaks and hookers attempted to staunch the onrushing Vintage backs. (Big Rat, Fast Doug (as opposed to yours truly, Half-Fast Doug) and a couple of others) 8-0 was the final. Paper bags anyone? Got into a big collision with young David new Vintage prop. Felt good. After the game I was telling Garry Henry that I used to be 6’4”…Garry says now you’re just 64.

That Don Jenner, what a scream. He got Paul and me howling before the game when he said, “Hey guys, let’s not throw the ball away.”…and what do you know…he did.

Speaking of 6’4”, Nick’s (who wasn’t there) friend, Martin Sutcliffe, who Nick intimated might be related to Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper was a large standout at lock for us and may be returning in the fall for a couple of guest appearances.

Big Martin’s a Bobby assigned to the Houses of Parliament and is a member of the Lords and Commons Rugby Club and they’ve got quite a smart looking orange and green club jersey. Lo and behold after the game Baron’s got one on…gives one pause to wonder what on earth Steve could possibly have done to warrant the receipt of such a fine sweater.

Vintage selected Roger Ruddy as their Man of the Match and Roger was complaining bitterly afterwards that they did not have a proper corkscrew to open the bottle of wine that goes with the award. A plucky little claret, good nose, strawberry and hazelnut notes and little bits of cork.

As I was entering this drivel into the log, I noticed on the telly that a large choir was entering the Guiness Book of World Records as the largest to sing, whistle and clop coconuts together to render homage to that wonderful Monty Python tune, “Always look on the bright side of life…tweet, tweet…tweet, tweet…clop,clop…etc” It immediately brightened me up after that 8-0 pounding.

Tournament 27 & 28 April We hope everyone got enough rugby, burgers and beer. I heard Murk was up to 8 games towards the end on Saturday. I couldn’t make it on Friday but I understand it was a little damp…heh, heh. Many thanks to all who contributed so much time to this event. Guys like Leigh Shelley, John Adams, Jaimie London, George Cook, Paul Dunning, Patti Bevilaqua, Foggy, Rob Rumley, Lonny Fribance, John Barton, Rod Turkington, Ian Trevor and all the referees. Also thanks to all of you who willingly put your shoulder to the wheel to put up and take down the tents and fencing. And how could we forget Morgan Grist and Lydia and Willem Toorenburgh. I’ve probably forgotten to remember somebody, old age and many beers will do that to you so I’m going to apologize right now.

What a great rugby schmooze fest in the sun on Saturday. We even saw Al and Aileen Dorrington out from Blighty looking for some retirement property. Al left the fold about 10 years ago and still looks like he could play a little bit of useful break even yet. Laura Grist was the class of the singers. Now that’s just damning with faint praise, Doug.

OK, OK How ‘bout she was head and shoulders and most of her torso above the crowd of Manilow wannabes?…Yeah, that’s better.

What else? Oh yeah Happy Birthday Nick. And here’s the not often heard 2^nd verse.

“May you live a hundred years, May you drink a hundred beers, Get plastered you bastard, Happy Birthday to you.” Big 5 0h. Which reminds me. My e-mail is down right at the moment, kaff, kaff caught a virus, just to let you know I’m not ignoring you…on purpose…all you who send me stuff.

…And another thing. President’s Night, Saturday, June 16 We’re having a live band, Fred Cook, you know, the nice one. We need a count of those who are going to attend so phone your phone lady or Pee Wee or George or any of your executive or come out on Wednesday night and tell us…to our face. And dude we want you to totally show up…like it’s totally hilarious, man.

$40/couple, DRINX TIX 6/$20, Cocktails 6:00ish, Dinner 6:30ish If we start much later the oldies start to get somewhat restive.

Oh and finally… Firstly. Remember with GREEN becoming the buzzword de jour, your sport and your kids’ sport is the Greenest of the lot. Where else can you get so many people (30) playing a game on a patch of sod and making so few demands on Mother Earth in terms of physical plant, poncy uniforms and protective devices…Nowhere! That’s where! And we also encourage the consumption of organic beer. (19+ of course)

Secondly. I know amongst rugby people the concept of touch rugby or buggers is a sensitive subject, so many for and a surprising number against. Now I agree as a teaching method it is probably not the best method but as a warm up for a practice I don’t think it can be beat. Right?

What I’m driving at however is that the community in general is looking for ways to combat childhood obesity and that means getting more kids physically active.

And what better way to get them active than to get them playing silly bug… I mean touch rugby or tip. Perhaps we should get the BCRU involved and spring for a couple of inexpensive balls for a few (or many) elementary schools and a few (or many) Johnny Appleseeds of rugby to preach the gospel of the Game and get the kids out at recess and lunch to chuck the ball around and sell a dummy or two and have a bit of a run. Another devious thought occurs: Might this not set a lot more young minds to accept the concept of the full contact game down the road…hmmm.

Your input or ideas would be gratefully received.

Waddayamean I can’t get into Australia?

                                                                        I am Snoop Dougg, not Snoop Dogg