Six Nations England supporters will know about “Blues Away”

Bedford Blues 21 -27 Cornish Pirates

That’s the best Blues Away scoreline this weekend. Magnificent first half and held through sustained pressure in the second. That puts Pirates firmly in the second position in the Championship. We travel away again next weekend to play league leaders Ealing. Fingers crossed we keep our fantastic form away from home with another famous win !!!

Meanwhile at the weekend, England made heavy weather of beating Italy on Saturday in Rome, and looked pale by comparison to Scotland who will be their next away fixture at Murrayfield.

Rugby History

Many people know me for my support for Cornish Pirates in the UK, others know me better for my time with my Kenya club, the Nondescripts (known as The Nondies).

However, when I started to think about it, I realised how rugby has been the longest seam in my life, starting aged eight at school in Penzance and remaining a constant to this day.

As a start, I was sent this overview of my “first class” and International rugby playing career.

As I precede the internet age by decades this is impressive research, and I doff my cap to the historian Paul Okong’o who pulled this together; and to my old pal Bill Cherry for a fantastic portfolio of press clippings.

The history reminds me of incidents that are still as clear as day as memories.

The three tries for Kampala against Impala in the Enterprise Cup Final, which is the top club competition in East Africa. They didn’t have such a thing as Man-of-the-Match in those days, so I’m awarding that to myself now!!

Achilles Injury

That was another Enterprise Cup Final, this time for Nondies against Impala. I tore my Achilles off the bone scoring a try, my foot just dropped and almost swung round 360 degrees. Bucket man John Ross-Munroe was the President of the Club and he said that when that happened to horses they just put them down!

Luckily for me, there was a top class surgeon watching the match and he operated that evening while I was still warm! He cut me open, wired it up and stitched it back onto the bone.

I had 18 months out recovering but came back and played again for Nondies and East Africa.

Thanks to Bill Cherry I have a Press Clippings file from my Africa playing days which you can see HERE