Main photo: the Marlborough Rugby walking rugby teams - in full 'technicolor'!
Thanks to Steve Major for the following report:
"On a glorious Saturday morning Marlborough welcomed seven teams to the inaugural Man Down Walking Rugby Tournament, representing the following clubs: Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew; Devizes; Royal Wootton Bassett; Melksham; Amesbury; and, of course, Marlborough - plus the Marlborough Pink Ladies, the first time Marlborough has fielded an (almost) all-women's team. With the Clubhouse open for business, visitors were tempted with bacon rolls and cold beer on arrival, before heading to the playing area to set up team gazebos. For many this was considered an adequate warm-up ahead of seven rounds of competitive rugby!
"Walking Rugby is for all ages above 18 and is a great way for older players to remain involved with their Club or injured players starting their recovery journey back to 1st and 2nd XV selection. Our oldest regular player is 71 and we have several sexagenarians, a number of quinquagenarians; in fact, everyone below 50 is considered young! We also have more and more women entering the sport to the extent that we were able to field a Marlborough Pink Ladies team with a little help from a few of the men's squad, embracing the theme with pink shirts and stetsons. The term Walking Rugby is a lie and somewhat misleading, as most games were played at a fair pace until eagle-eyed referees decided a very fast walk was a run!
"Round 1 started at 10:00 with conditions almost perfect, a temperature of only 22oC with a cooling breeze blowing in from The Common. The ground itself was, unfortunately, like concrete; thankfully in the three hours and 21 games only one player was unfortunate in hitting the ground head-first resulting in a split nose and bruised head. There was only one other injury and that was our own Paul Haigh who ended up with a broken rib following a clattering tackle before hitting the ground in our crucial match against Royal Wotton Basset that ended in a draw.
"Games were refereed by volunteers from the visiting teams, and all of them commented on the enthusiasm of all the teams and the overall standard of play. Entering the final round there was everything to play for with Royal Wootton Bassett, the Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew, and Melksham all on 11 points followed by Marlborough on 9 points. With Bassett sitting this round out, and Melksham lining up against the Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew, a draw in this game and a win for Marlborough would have resulted in all three teams on 12 points and Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew winning on most games won. In a hotly contested game Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew beat Melksham by one try to win the tournament on 14 points with Marlborough coming second after beating the Marlborough Pink Ladies to finish 2nd on 12 points. The referees also awarded points for fair play and with only one point separating all teams Devizes and Wotton Basset shared the Fair Play award.
"The 1st Place Marlborough Man Down Trophy was presented to Wheatsheaf Cabin Crew by Rob Hay of Man Down, who then presented the consolation prize to Marlborough and the Fair Play award to Devizes/Royal Wootton Bassett. Rob used the opportunity to thank Marlborough Rugby for hosting the event and the visiting teams for coming, adding that Walking Rugby was a great forum for men and women to be part of a community where they can share their struggles if they wish to do so. Further information on Man Down can be found at mandown.org and after the event Rob advised that having a presence at the Marlborough Man Down Walking Rugby Festival had raised just over £400 for the Charity.
"If you are interested in joining the Walking Rugby section at Marlborough Rugby, we currently get together on a Wednesday evening at the Clubhouse between 1900-2000. Most Wednesdays we have our own barman to ensure the bar is open and we are safely re-hydrated before heading home. Ask for Paul, Steve, or Sian."
A gallery of photos taken at the event can be seen on the Club website here, with thanks to Alex Brown.
