Opening Victory for All Stars

The All Stars season finally kicked off on Saturday at the Chelsea training football ground against a younger looking Guys Hospital side than in previous years.

A whirlwind start by Cobham led them to be three tries up within ten minutes. Then in typical All Star fashion the team needed a rest after their previous exertions. This allowed Guys Hospital to come back with two hard fought tries, producing a closely fought game until Cobham were able to cut loose in the last fifteen minutes.

Mazey and illusive running by Stallion and hard graft by the rest of the pack, in particular Andy Le Petit, created a good platform for the backs to run in some tries. Gareth Palmer coming back from injury ran straight and hard deservedly got himself on the score sheet.

Phil Birch scored under the posts cutting back inside and squandering a three man overlap because he couldn't bring himself to give Bartlett a scoring pass.

The game produced a welcome return to rugby from the largest backside in the vet's game, our Chairman Ian Thomas. His fitness looked suspect on the long journey out to the pitch but he caught his second wind and produced an heroic first half performance and was only denied a score by the myopic referee who missed Ian's half a yard dash for the line because he tripped over his guide dog.

A sound opening match of the season hampered only by ill discipline and an unacceptable penalty count.

Man of the match, Pat, you never guess who I had in the back of my cab, Stallion.

Onwards and upwards!

Report by Yatesy