Antoine

History
Our May 24th tradition began in 2006 when a group of Teachers Rugby Football Club players decided to run the ½ marathon as a way to raise funds to help pay for an electric wheelchair for a middle school student. We were so successful that we managed to purchase the wheelchair out right and have enough extra to pay for an overseas summer camp for the child. Since then we have run each year and managed to raise and donate over $50,000.00.

Sponsor
Thanks to our members and sponsors we are able to donate every cent raised to our recipients. Our sponsors pay for our running jerseys and our members pay their own entry fee and expenses as well as put in countless hours of training. This year we are sponsored by Milwaukee.

Recipients
This year will be raising funds for Antoine. Antoine is 9 years old and is blind and autistic. He is in need of a Braille machine to assist wi

Teachers RFC Running Club

th his learning. At present he must borrow a machine from other students during classes. The machine costs approximately $7,000.00.

Our second goal is to assist the Bermuda Heart Foundations in purchasing new equipment required for recovering heart patients. The equipment required will cost over $9,000.00.

All additional funds raised will be split equally between Windreach and SCARS.

Download the pledge sheet here

Register for the run here

Look at this wonderful list of runners !!!

Brian Desmond – Dessie, Ron Hook – Hooks, Alvin Harvey, Mark Stephenson – Penthouse , Greg Fraser – Gregor, Jessie McKay, Amber Karatz, Keith Matthews – Kaptain Keet, Patrick McHugh, Craig  Smith – Skippy, Michael Montgomery – Monty , James Adderley, Andrew Batson, Rich Gaskell, Richard Boyd – Boydy, Kelli Nusum, Shelley Harvey, Sacha Bearden, James Dockeray – Josh, Chris Naylor – Nails, Sarah Randall, Sally Pile, Mike Cann, Matt Irvine, Sarah Farrar, Amy Adderley, Henry Adderley, Chris Way, Danielle Way, Bill McNiven,  Heath Robinson, Stuart White,  Karyn,  David Cooke – Cookie, Jeff Sangster – Ganster, Andrew Males – Bibbler, Thomas Greenslade – Tank, Andrew The Snooze Correia,  Tom Moroney – Little Tom, Bobby Hurdle,  Rebecca Hurdle, Berto Sousa, Adam Chevis – Son of Sangster, Chris Jones, Jessica Cote, Dave Porter, Sophie, Craig MacIntyre,  Sheryce Raynor, Julie Foggo,  Kalley Williams, Nir Sadeh – Don King

Antoine

After the first ten minutes you would have been forgiven for thinking the final score line would definitely be in our favour. Henry made a great break, Pup almost got clear but lost the ball in contact and Bobby slipped up off the back of an attacking 5 meter scrum. Our only reward was a Pup penalty.

We actually put together some of the stuff we had worked on in training and didn’t over commit to the rucks and had pods running off the half backs. Our lineout spluttered but our scrum was fantastic, what we really lacked was that final pass and an ability to release our speedy backs in space.

Midway through the half Gades got some territory but we managed to clear our lines, no thanks to Henry. Henry doesn’t often appear on the BM’s radar so I was particularly pleased to witness his pathetic kick. He at least turned to his teammates and immediately said “I’ll bring my case to training”.
Correct.

Tank made a battling forty yard diagonal run but not for the first time an opportunity went begging with a botched pass, it was frustrating but we were still on top in terms of territory and possession. As we entered the last 10 minutes of the half a poor clearance kick was gathered by the Gades scrum half, Healy. He evaded our one chaser and then set off into open territory, he linked with his support and we found ourselves out flanked down our left wing and their centre and Captain cantered in for a pretty soft try.

Renegades then gathered some momentum and forced us into defense with some strong running from Jack’s Rookie. In fact Jack’s Rookie was probably Man of the Match and a constant thorn in our side.
Playing at inside centre he is a big unit who is also capable of offloading in the tackle and twice in the half we got lucky when his centre partner dropped his pass with the line at his mercy. The half ended with a Pup penalty and we went in at the break 6-5 up.

Andre came onto the wing and made an instant break up field, he found Jack who was then in a straight sprint for the corner with a Renegade Prop Forward. You know by the final score line who won the race.
Jack your case on Thursday please, the prop is deceptively fast and may even have had an angle on you but if there was any doubt that you would get caught you should have put a move on him to halt his progress……and besides I enjoy fining you.

We continued to press forward but a stray (cheating) boot stopped a free kick move after Dunlop had set it up. The ref apologized for missing it but that didn’t stop the frustration as we started to give away penalties, firstly Nails, rightly so for stamping then T and then Church who can both feel a bit hard done to. Anyway the resulting 80 yard loss of territory ended with a lost lineout that was spun to Jack’s Rookie who ran through weak midfield defense to set up an easy run in for his centre partner. 12-5 down. Hendo, the Gades fly half, slotted a drop goal and with Jack’s Rookie finding a lot of holes the Gades suddenly started to stretch out a lead that we didn’t really look like clawing back.

Tank provided a rare second half highlight with a nice chip followed by a thunderous tackle but other than that the rugby was being played by the opposition and not us. Healy nicely gathered his own grubber and scored under the posts and then with a few minutes left their backrower scored out wide.

Our humiliation was not quite complete. Gades had thankfully finished scoring on us but that didn’t stop us from making life harder on ourselves. The final few minutes saw a flurry of substitutions and in the confusion Donal and Dunlop went off and Adam came on. Hopeful that we are that Adam will be good, I don’t think he is yet up to being as good as both of them put together. As our Captain and Vice took their seats on the bench next to each other in a depressed state the other 14 on the park played on. It was only when a scrum was awarded that the bright pair of Bobby and Nails realized we were
missing someone. We informed the bench who immediately substituted Devrae for Jahbari. A bit more scratching of heads went on before we came to the conclusion that we were still missing someone!

Donal eventually figured out that he had not been substituted at all and sheepishly rejoined the game. Boydie, you were running the bench so you are guilty but you cannot take full responsibility so you can share a case with Donal.

So a game that overall reflects our season. A great start that we never really built on followed by moments of good and really pretty bad rugby. Very disappointing considering the potential/experience in this side.

Still it’s not all over just yet. Police next followed by Mariners and then we can concentrate and go out and win the Nicol Shield which we haven’t done for a while.

All debtors please bring your beer on Thursday. The club is filling the fridge on Tuesday as we host a training session for the students of Mount St. Alison, it would be good to have numbers on Tuesday!

See you there.

BM

A draw, a bloody draw !!!

So to the game. TRFC had the luxury of selecting an unchanged team for the first time all season…..except it wasn’t quite……Our Captain made the point of calling Dessie to inform him we were going to be fielding the same team as last week and then promptly dropped the Ginger Legend. In fairness to Dessie he realized he only started last week due to the late withdrawal of Henry but I think it’s more fun to point out that he had in fact been dropped in favour of a 26 year old playing only his second game of men’s rugby at prop.

We soon realized the gamble of playing a novice in Chris Stafford against one of the National team props wasn’t going to pay off so an early substitution saw the Ginger One on and we soon got the upper hand in the scrum. Tank stole several against the head and the pack can be pretty pleased with their efforts all game on that front.Apart from the need for the early substitution we started well and after the Forwards set a platform and with good 3rd phase ball the

TRFC faithful, massed on the elevated bank at the end of the field, were treated to a mazy run from Jack. His 40 yard run sideways was done at such pace he had his team mates diving out of the way. Just as he was running out of real estate he showed remarkable composure in drawing the last defender and passing off to Kwame McHugh who sprinted into the corner and
flamboyantly dived in for the first score of the game. Conversion was missed but it was a good start.

Mariners however are league leaders for a reason. They are accused of being a one trick pony but you have to give it to them, they are pretty good at their one trick. Their Fly Half kicks them into the opposition 22 and their well drilled forwards keep the

ball off the floor and get that driving maul going.
At times we defended it well, most notably Dessie and Church while Porter did well to get under their biggest man to stop a certain try, but at other times Mariners got their rumble on. Attractive rugby it isn’t but effective it is and from the usual half yard out one of their big boys fell over the line and scored the equalizer before the half was out.

Great catch Bobby......

5 all at half time was probably a fair reflection of the game, the weather had turned miserable and we hadn’t really managed to get the ball out to the backs where we felt we were clearly superior but there was plenty of confidence we could stretch out a lead in the second half. Dunlop made a couple of bold substitutions at the half. On came Puppy for the Little Poisonous One and new boy Robin came on for Gregor. Pup for Porter was like for like, both sulk when they don’t get the ball, both abuse referees, both can change a game with their try scoring ability.

Robin for Greg was a step into the unknown. Robin has only been here a few days but looked good in training, Greg has never looked good in training. Greg though kills people in the collision, we hadn’t even seen if Robin could tackle. On that front Robin was thankfully fine but it was a tricky situation for a new boy to be thrown into and he was at times probably guilty of trying too hard to impress as he attempted to run out of positions when he would have been better advised to hoof it.

The BM spoke to Robin after the game and the rookie was a bit disappointed with his own game but the BM isn’t concerned about that. He did nothing to cost us points. What Robin is going to get fined for is having a softer melon than Jerry’s. Yes, on Robin’s very first training session, Jerry ‘I get knocked out at the slightest contact’ Way clashed heads with him. Unbelievably Jerry walked away unscathed while Robin split his eye open. Robin, welcome to the club, please bring a case to training.

Back to the 2nd half. Mariners put pressure on early and drove deep into our 22 and in the pocket their fly half landed a drop goal. The Mariners lead lasted a mere two minutes as Pup equalized with a nicely taken penalty. 8 – 8, 35 minutes left on the clock. The remainder of the game was scrappy to say the least. The breakdowns were a mess and though better than in our mid-season slump we struggled to put phases together. Frustration at the Ref started to bubble over. Arguably the islands best ref at the moment, there is no getting away from the fact that last year’s Mariners Club President probably shouldn’t have been allocated this top of the table clash. When calls go against you it’s pretty easy to assume rightly or wrongly some bias. Bobby almost exploded but managed to keep a lid on it but Billy,much to the BM’s amusement could not help himself. As the BM has matured I have learned to enjoy such moments, as a player its annoying for a sub to cost us yards but as a drinker it just such an easy 24!

Billy. Make sure the case is cold......

Yes Bill, you know what’s coming….it’s not the first time….bring a case.

The axis of petulant evil, Porter and Greg, are lucky to escape sanction but Nails saved you by blaming Jerry as the Ref was about to penalize us for a similar offence.

It’s difficult to remember many other highlights. Kwame was outstanding all game, as well as his score he chased down kicks and made some crucial tackles, it’s one of the best games I’ve seen from our 100lb winger. Tank was awarded MVP by Dunlop for his overall contribution but we’ll see how long it takes this week before he is stripped of his title and awarded to coach’s favourite Bobby!

We now have a couple of weeks off from league action but the need to continue training is obvious. 7’s this week is up at NSC under lights on Friday night so we’ll make sure we have a cooler of green ones up there for players and spectators alike. Watching rugby with a beer in your hand….it’s so 2011!

See you at training.

BM

Let’s get the easy ones out the way. Porter you are first. In trying to ‘out’ me (not in the homosexual way…..not that there is anything wrong with that……we accept everyone in this club…..Jerry?!) you insinuated that I may actually be that little twat Nails…that is quite some insult, bring a case.

The winners. And Porters blue socks....

Captain Not-so-Fantastic, you are next. Dunlop awarded quite correctly Big T with the MVP award and then retrospectively awarded Bobby (quite incorrectly) with the MVP award in the Renegade game having already assigned it previously to Church. Does the coveted MVP award mean so little to our Captain that he just randomly reassigns it? Who will pick up the pieces of shattered self-esteem? Poor Church. Dunlop a case.

Chris Stafford made his debut start in the front row and acquitted himself very well in both the tight and the loose. Well done mate, for your endeavors we will enjoy your case.

Big Will, for your outburst on the sideline directed at one of your own players you can bring a case too.

That’s 4 cases and I haven’t even mentioned Donal yet!!

I suppose I had better talk about the game. For once we started well and I honestly put it down to the good vibe at training the last couple of weeks, there was a certain confidence about us and definitely a bullishness especially from our forwards that has been sadly lacking for a while. We really took it to the Police pack, our lineouts and catch and drive clicked from the off and the Backs kicked and chased really well, constantly pinning the opposition in their own 22. It’s somewhat surprising to say but we were actually playing to a game plan and it was working!! Jack was first to score, from a great driving maul the ball went first to Bobby then Scott who spun out of a tackle to hand off the ball at close range to young Jack who piled over in heavy traffic. Conversion missed but it was a good start.

Jack on his way to try number 1

Not long after, from more good work at close quarters we were awarded a penalty near their posts. The option to pick up an easy 3 points was obvious but as Greg stepped up to kick the penalty he clearly had other ideas. With amazing accuracy Greg drilled the ball against the upright, Jack followed up and produced an equally precise helicopter collision with an unfortunate Cop, as they both fell to the ground dazed from the impact the ball ballooned up, straight into the hands of Tank who dived over for a try. It was a quite brilliant text book move straight off the training field! Well done fellas…absolutely hilarious! Greg this time missed the post he was aiming for but ended up with the conversion. 12-0 up.

Our next try actually did come off the training park, from the back of the scrum Bobby picked up and went blind, popped to Nails, who has returned even more fragile than before, who held up the ball just long enough for Jack to pick his hole and sprint to the corner. Try. 17-0.

We completely dominated the first half mainly as a result of some brutal hitting led by Big T. T singled out Police’s biggest player, Lammies, for special attention. Lammies isn’t usually a dirty player but he was clearly rattled by the phy

Nails had an outstanding performance. Bloody legend. Even if he did kick it backwards .... shh .. don't tell the Beer monitor

sicality of the hits and even managed to find some sympathy from the Ref who awarded some penalties against us ‘for tackling too hard’ maybe?!

Having been so completely on top the first 10 minutes of the second half came as a bit of a surprise. Police scored almost immediately and reminded us that they remain the sort of team that can score from anywhere. The converted score was soon followed by a penalty and all of a sudden the PoPo who had brought on their new giant in the pack and the much improved Zuill on the wing were now only 7 points adrift. If anything though we then picked up our defense. Our kicking was not quite as precise as in the first half but our outside Backs hustled well and everyone (with theexception of Nails) was putting in hits. Donal had a really good game in defense and was responsible, with a sizeable helping hand from Devrae, in putting in a momentum changing hit on the hapless Lammies, it was a ground shaker and the boys on the sideline loved it. Dev actually made some memorable cover tackles as did Bobby…there was no way we were going to lose this game.

So committed were the lads that the nicest man in Bda Rugby, Little Harry Andrews, set up the next try with a big hit on their hooker. The hit dislodged the ball and Tank for the second time was the grateful recipient of a lucky bounce as he raced away to get our bonus point 4th try and effectively end the match as a contest.

The last 10 minutes were a bit scrappy, Harry humorously threw the ball on the ground to no one and then proceeded to block everyone from getting it as the Teachers support couldn’t decide to laugh or cry at the rugby skills on show from our stand in Stand Off.

Great performance by the entire pack ........

Right at the end of the game the misfiring Police lineout once again threw straight to Aldo who must never ever have received so much ball in one game. He set off for the line but was dragged back yards short, Teachers piled in and hammered the try line for a couple of phases before Donal popped up and ran in for our final score. 31-10. A really good performance from the team but sod that! Can you believe that was Donal’s first try ever!!! Hooray the beer gods are smiling on us! Here is a first, yes Donal you will be bringing a case of beer ……..and a bottle of bubbly to training.

I’m not quite sure this was the message the TRFC old boy I mentioned at the beginning was trying to get across but I can’t help myself.

See you at training…all this will mean nothing if we fall flat next week against the League Leaders.

BM (Bubbly Monitor)

Gregor made some crunching tackles

Boys, it’s getting difficult for the BM to write these reports, it’s not that I am bad loser (though I certainly don’t enjoy it) it’s just that I am not very impressed with the rugby we are playing. When the BM is making comments from the pitch the criticism is a tongue-in-cheek piss-take but when I’m on the sidelines it’s hard not to make the criticism sound like…..well like….plain old criticism.

Literally for only 10 minutes in the entire game were we the better team, 5 minutes either side of half time. For the rest of the time we were well beaten by an average Renegade team, was I disappointed? Very much so. Was I surprised? Not exactly, attendance at training has been poor and it was obvious that the XV we put out had never played together even on the training park. We played with commitment but had no shape to our game, our first phase was ok at best and our second phase was non-existent, add to the mix that our young Backs left their hands at home and you start to get the picture.

With 35 minutes on the clock we were 14-0 down, I only remember one try for Gades which came from Puppy being robbed in a maul that also involved two more of our Backs (probably the reason it got turned over!). From the turnover the Gades ran 60 yards and executed their 7 on 2 overlap with admirable ease! We did at least finish the half well, the forwards simply kept it to themselves and made inroads but at the vital moment when a score looked likely a handling mistake was made and Gades cleared their lines.

Great catch by the Vice Captain

The 2nd half started fantastically, Puppy went blind with the kick off taking the Gades by surprise, Andre clattered the receiver, Bodyie picked up and then fed Andre who went over for the try. Despite Puppy’s poor hands he did at least remember to bring his kicking boots as he followed the difficult conversion with a difficult penalty and all of sudden we were within 4 points and Renegades had hardly touched the ball 5 mins into the half.

After that however it became a pretty scrappy affair, neither team really laid a platform to play off but Gades took their chances. Poor defense off a lineout saw their inside centre slice through to feed his winger for a score, their fly half landed a couple of drop goals and a penalty then poor defense on their part saw Bobby go over off a quick penalty but by then it was all too late for the boys in Red.

Of note were a couple of open field tackles by Henry and Donal and it was good to see the freight train that is Greg Fraser take out months of injury frustration by running over the smallest Renegade he could find on a number of occasions. Other than that there was little joy for the BM to comment on, no beer this week, we simply don’t deserve it.

BM

A 'calamitous mistake'

Another late mistake and another defeat in another game we should have put out of sight before the calamitous mistake occurred. Ok we were missing some old heads in Bobby, Dunlop and Nails but we were up against a seriously depleted Police who were fielding only one of last year’s backs and he was
playing out of position. This loss has opened up a 4 point gap that we need to claw back this weekend when we face league leaders Mariners.

The game started with a rush of try scoring opportunities but unfortunately they seemed to fall on young Patrick who experienced a shocking first 15 minutes to the game. The first opportunity was by far the biggest crime and will cost Patrick a case of beer. After a nice run down the wing all Patrick had to do was dive to the floor to score the try but for some inexplicable reason he stayed on his feet having already crossed the try line and then got bundled out the deadball area. What a bloody Muppet!

Strangely the ref awarded a 5m lineout to Police but they overthrew it and the ball landed in Henry’s hands at the back. He dived over for an apparent score only for it to be disallowed as we had too many in the lineout. (A trick Police kept repeating for the entire 1st half before someone in red finally realized!)

To compound the BM’s annoyance Patrick then dropped a pass that hit him in the hands with a clear run to the line in front of him. It was painful watching. 3 tries gone begging in the first 10 minutes.

Thankfully our 4th chance of the opening quarter fell to Andre Landy and he made no mistake as he ran through 3 tacklers before scoring under the posts with Pup adding the extras.

From hero to zero

The 7 point lead didn’t last long unfortunately and Police were soon back in it when Lammies, their big 2nd Row, crashed through some Backs to score from close range. 7-5. Police then enjoyed a period of pressure but our defense led by the outstanding Big T was up to it though we did concede a penalty to go 7-8 behind. Undoubtedly the highlight of the first half was Church racing 40 meters down the field, ball in hand. Our big Rasta is in serious danger of getting a national team call up at Tighthead several years after retiring from the national backrow. Church just had one of those games when everything went right, he was like a magnet to the ball, even when lineouts went wrong somehow the ball ended up in his hands. It was a shame he would end up on the losing side.

The first half scoring had not yet finished. Shortly after Church’s exploits we were awarded a penalty close to the Police line which Dave Porter took quickly and dived over for a try (see the pic ) so we went into the break 12-8 up. It had been an eventful half and the boys were playing with a lot of spirit with the pack slowly getting the upper hand in the set piece.

The 2nd half did not start well though. Jerry who had returned to fill the gap at Fly Half was soon groggily walking off having received yet another blow to the head that left him dazed. Hopefully it’s not the end for Jerry..…because everyone likes to drink his beer and he is an easy target for the BM!

With Jerry off another reshuffle saw Porter go to 10 and Morrison at 9. Changes in key positions don’t help but despite more possession the Backs as a whole simply were not firing. Puppy and Andre were starved of ball and TRFC has to address this problem quickly so we don’t end up wasting the try scoring potential these youngsters have.

Anyway the 2nd half was not much of a spectacle, the big hits were going in but there were

Jerry - Would you like me to rub it?

no clean breaks apart from Harry who stumbled through a gap and could not quite finish it off. The score remained 12-8, we had an opportunity for a penalty kick but decided to run it, in hindsight it was probably a mistake but Captain Donal was at least trying to put us out of reach. Nothing came of it but the lost opportunity stung us in the ass when a poor pass to Puppy in midfield went to ground (see other photo below) and the Police centre scooped up the ball to run half the length of the field to score under the posts with about 5 minutes left on the clock.

In the last desperate moments Harry then Tank were held up over the line but we couldn’t find that crucial score and we had to settle for a losing bonus point. Bollocks!! Two loses in our last two games with scores against us in the last 5 minutes, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

It’s imperative we get a good turnout at training, beat mariners and we right back in the race for the league. See you at training.

According to the BM 'The socks are a disgrace but credit goes to Donal who brought a case to training yesterday as he knew this was coming'

First defeat of the season which means we are now second on points difference in the league standing. A disappointing performance against a hard working opposition who would have been well clear if their Fly Half hadn’t had a shocker with the boot missing 6 attempts at goal!

Alzheimer’s is definitely setting into the BM. Not because the wife found me wandering the streets in my underwear on Saturday night, that was because I had returned from an excellent TRFC Halloween Party (well done Entertainments Committee) but because I simply cannot remember the Gades first try.  They scored early, within the first 10 minutes but missed the conversion.  Teachers then had a fair amount of possession for the remainder of the half but Gades scrum half was making life difficult at the back of our scrum and once again TRFC were guilty of not putting any sort of phases together.  Our scrums were good, our lineouts were bad and our play at the breakdown was downright awful!

Players weren’t posting the ball, we weren’t cleaning out rucks and this all against a team with players who are very good (legally or illegally) at slowing down opposition ball. It was pretty poor stuff considering we practice it all week.  In between penalty misses from Gades, Nails missed a penalty but then we did get some good fortune for our first try.

Jack chased his own long kick down field. Gades scrum half, Healy, stepped out of Jack’s tackle and then tried to go round young Patrick but just as Healy went to flick a pass back inside our young winger nailed him and the pass looped back to where Jack was lying on the floor. Jack, somewhat surprised by his good luck, turned and set off for the try line, the cover defense got to him but he off loaded to Andre who skipped past a final defender to score under the posts. Nails landed the conversion and we were 7-5 up. By the half we were down though as the Gades fly half, who had had plenty of practice, finally slotted a penalty. 7-8 down.

Our Captain’s frustration with our performance was evident by the not too diplomatic half-time address to the team.  The message was clear, we had started flat, played poorly and were deservedly behind.

A couple of changes were made and Harry brought a stability to proceedings despite butchering the first overlap of the 2^nd half (had to put that in, I don’t want LHA thinking he is valuable to the team) and Porter raised the tempo of our game.  We definitely played better in the second half and the ball was beginning to find our dangerous runners out wide with Andre getting a sniff of the line on a few occasions but last gasp defense managing to haul him in each time. Despite our improved performance we were still guilty of handing penalties to the Gades but fortunately their Fly Half continued to miss.

With about 20 minutes left on the clock Nails and Scotty spotted a mismatch in midfield and Nails ‘raced’ through a gap to score untouched under the posts which he also converted. 14-8 up. Things were looking rosy.   Dave Porter then missed a chance to possibly finish the game as contest when his penalty kick hit the post and this felt worse when Gades slotted a penalty of their own to close the gap 14-11.

Porter was again involved in the next incident, he went to take a quick penalty in heavy traffic and national team captain Dunks, couldn’t resist the temptation to trip him.  The BM could see the red mist descend on our favourite Poison Dwarf before he had even hit the floor and his mood was not helped by Gades flanker Connor flopping on top of him.  Needless to say Porter’s head almost exploded in indignation much to everybody’s amusement. The Ref did spot it though and Dunks saw yellow.

At this point Teachers should have closed out the game but this time it was Gades who enjoyed some good fortune. After a couple of phases Scotty attacked down the right and with his winger in support he made it deep into the 22 but he then lost the ball in contact. Gades hacked the ball downfield and with Jack up in the line expecting to attack there was no one at home and the race was on.  In fairness to Jack he did win the race but what happened next was calamitous and will probably haunt him for a while. As he went to collect the bobbling ball it bounced between his legs and despite his desperate dive the on rushing Renegade Full Back managed to get a toe to it before him, again hacking it through before conveniently bouncing up perfectly for him to dive over for the clinching try in the final minutes. They missed the kick again but no matter, we ran out of time and have now experienced out first league defeat of the season.

Not the most fun filled report of the year. Here is a picture of our vice-captain Donal.  The socks are a disgrace but credit goes to Donal who brought a case to training yesterday as he knew this was coming.

We break now for the Classic but return to league action against the Police in a couple of weeks so training will continue.

See you there.

BM

8pm to 1am “50th Anniversary of the 60’s Party”
Music by Red Alert
In the new Tent Tavern at National Sports Centre, Devonshire

Admission $20
Food stalls by Café Lido

7th November Sunday

2.30pm Canada vs. the Classic Lions (A)
4.00pm South Africa vs. the United States (B)
7.00pm Red Alert in the Tent Tavern

Gates Open at noon

8th November Monday

7.15pm France vs. New Zealand (C)
8.30pm Argentina vs. Australia (D)
Gates Open at 5.45pm

9th November Tuesday

12.30pm World Rugby Classic Golf Tournament
At Riddells Bay Golf & Country Club

10th November Wednesday

5:45pm Bermuda XV vs. Lloyds RFC
7.15pm Plate Semi-Final: Loser A vs. Loser B
8.30pm Classic Semi-Final: Winner A vs. Winner B
10.00pm Live Music in the Tent Tavern

Gates Open at 5.45pm

11th November Thursday

7.15pm Plate Semi-Final: Loser C vs. Loser D
8.30pm Classic Semi-Final: Winner C vs. Winner D
10.00pm Live Music in the Tent Tavern

Gates Open at 5.45pm

12th November Friday

8pm to 1am ON THE WATERFRONT PARTY
Barr’s Park, Hamilton.13th November Saturday
5.00pm Bermuda Old Boys vs. Atlanta Renegades Old Boys

6.30pm Plate Final
8.00pm Classic Final
10.00pm Live Music in the Tent Tavern

Gates Open at 4.30pm

' National 7s Team Captain, Tom Healy, who has just been thrown into touch by the try scoring 18 year old in red and white….Yes Mate!

The 7’s squad won the first round of a 4 round league with a convincing win over Mariners thanks in a large part to the quicksilver feet of Andre Landy. This result was followed by a last gasp winning try by Puppy conjured up by the aging but brilliant Little Harry Andrews against Police. Annoyingly we lost the last game of the day to Gades, having been 17-0 at half time we opted to play some fringe players who have been at training but unfortunately their defensive frailties were exposed and Gades came back to snatch it at the death 17-19. No matter, our points difference was far superior to anybody else and the ‘League Points’ are in the bag. Special mentions go to Andre and Puppy for their try scoring and Henry for his work rate but all three were out gunned by a player who for the BM was Man of the Day for his contribution to both the 7s team and the Mighty Twos…….but more of him later…….
Check out these photos from the 7’s, Pup doing what Pup does and Patrick on the way to the posts, check out the bottom left hand corner of Patrick’s photo……that’s National 7s Team Captain, Tom Healy, who has just been thrown into touch by the try scoring 18 year old in red and white….Yes Mate!

Kaptain Keets Super 2nds - YES MATE !!!!

Now let’s get on to the main event. The Mighty Twos played their second game of the campaign and came away victorious against a (seriously stacked with ringers) Rest 2nd XV. In the backrow for the Rest was current National Team captain Dunks and alongside him was former Canada ‘A’ back rower Scott Harland and yet they were still no match for Kaptain Keet and his merry men!

If you watched the game it will come as no surprise that the beers this week will be bought by the Twos. First of all the Kaptain got on the park for the first time so that will be a case from him and then we also have a number of debutants who also need to bring a case to training this week. Welcome to the club Andy (back row in the middle) please bring 24 green to training and also welcome to Big Will or SOD as he is becoming known (bottom row, far right). SOD stands for Son of Dessie for obvious reasons though SOD can also apply to Dessie himself (Stupid Old Dessie). SOD also happened to make his debut with his brother who was visiting. SOD if your brother is still here then he needs to bring a case too.

That is 4 cases in the fridge and I haven’t even started to fine anyone!

Snoooooozie ..... Kase !!!!!!!

It was hoped that this game would be billed as the Return of the Legend but as this so called legend hasn’t been seen for two months and didn’t even bother to show up to any of the 50th Anniversary weekend functions despite being on island I’m not even going to mention Jerry apart from to say bring 12 beers for the drop goal attempt, just like Nails last week, if they go over you are a hero, if they don’t you’re a zero.

Skippy, I’m going to fine you. Your line out throwing was shocking. You play for the team in red, throw it them if you can’t manage straight down the middle. Case please….and none of that dodgy stuff you try to sell to the public.

Snoozie, you too! Your chip kick from the penalty has to be one of the worst bits of play I’ve seen in a very long time. The BM did enjoy how you tried to style it out by immediately trying to start a fight with the opposition, as if they had something to do with the kick, but it didn’t fool me old timer…bring a case.

The game itself was hard fought but in all honesty Teachers were never in danger of losing. Jahbari score

Kaptain Keet ruling the National Team Captain

d the first try, The BM is sure that this is his first try for TRFC but as the club is paying for the youngster’s education I probably cannot fine him at this time so we’ll leave it as “Well done Jahbari, I’ll fine you in a few years’ time”. Patrick got the second with a well worked backs move and the Man of the Day, Rich Boyd got the third. Now the BM is not quite sure what has happened to Boydie. He joined the club a couple of years ago completely fragile and seemingly unable to catch a ball yet on Saturday he was quite clearly the stand out player on the Twos and also contributed to the 7’s team with a score in his brief time on the park. Boydie, keep taking the drugs, they are clearly working….and oh yes, bring a case.

That is seven and half cases from one game…maybe a new BM record….see you all at training, Gades this week…let’s rule them!

BM

Case!!!! Harry. !!!! You should be wearing No. 1's

Bermuda’s tourism industry is in serious trouble if Little Harry Andrews is the best it can do. LHA, if you are going to be plastered all around the world you need to be wearing Teachers’ Number 1′s. Your friend has made more of an effort than you. Harry please look for an App on your phone that says ‘Bring a case to training’, the App will cost about $45.

Right let’s get to the game. Teachers won 20-17 against the previously unbeaten Mariners.  Some of the facts in this report may be completely untrue, the BM can’t remember much as I think my brain was fried by the heat. It was like playing on the surface of the sun.  At half time most of the forwards dumped their padding to stop themselves from cooking!

For once we started well, Puppy breaking loose early and TRFC applying a fair amount of pressure but Mariners withstood this and after 10 minutes, with their first attack they scored!  To be honest it was utterly shite tackling that let the strong running ‘Sudoku’ charge 25 metres to the line.  Mariners for a while had their tales up and Sudoku made a couple more telling breaks thwarted on one occasion by a try saving tackle by Nails of all people.

Perfect catch Bobby.....

Mariners now have a useful fly half who can kick well so you can imagine the players’ displeasure when the Ref awarded a penalty against our bench for shouting abuse.  The fly half duly stepped up and sent us 50 yards towards our own line.  Now as it happens the guilty party was not on our bench but one of our spectators, Hob-along Greg Fraser.  Greg it doesn’t matter that the Ref has no right to penalize a team because of a spectator, the end result was minus 50 yards but on the plus side it’s 24 green ones in the fridge from you.

By half time we had closed the gap to 3 – 7 with a penalty from Pup. The 5 minute break was clearly what we needed as we came storming out of the blocks in the 2^nd half.  From the Mariners kick off the Backs decided to run it out, 4 phases and about 15 pairs of hands later Puppy dived over for a try which he converted.  From the next restart Dessie twirled out a tackle to set up another counter attack which eventually resulted in a penalty on their 22 which Pup slotted.  It was suddenly 13 – 7 to Puppy and the Mariners still had not touched the ball in the second half!

For a couple of minutes we let them have the ball but then decided to heap more punishment on the boys in green. Another break from Puppy saw him dragged down on the line but the youngster ignored Church who was there in support preferring to wait for his fellow youngster Aldo. As the big Rasta roared in frustration young Aldo dived over from close range.  Now this is Aldo’s second 1^stVX try but the BM forgot to fine him for his debut try so he needs to bring a case to celebrate. Pup converted and we were 20 -6 up.

Goooooooooooo Porter .......

I don’t think we took the foot off the gas, it was probably more like we were out of gas and to Mariner’s credit they are a much better outfit than previous years.  Their enormous pack didn’t do a great deal of running but their new fly half now has a boot to put them in dangerous positions.  As is often the case with Teachers we also contributed to making this a lot closer than it should have been.  First there was indiscipline, talking to the Ref. The penalty kick went deep into our 22 and from there, despite some heroic defense led by MVP Dessie, they burrowed over.  Luckily for us their fly half is much better at kicking out of hand than for the posts as he missed the conversion. 20-12. Then Scotty had a clearance kick charged down and they once again piled over from short range with the FH again missing the extras to make it 20 -17.  Talking of crap kicks from Fly Halves, Nails will be bringing 12 beers for his attempted drop goal….comical but crap!

That final score did seem to waken us up a bit and we finished strongly but we were all relieved to hear the final whistle and head for some shade.

So one round down and we are top of the table.  A good start but still a long way to go.  Jack you are a debtor….sort it out please.

See you all at training.

BM