Well, thought I would let you all know how it went!
Deeps and I met up at Havant at just after 6:30 in the morning to get the 6:50 train to Waterloo. With station coffee and bacon baguette in hand, we got the train up which ran remarkably to time. With a short walk to Waterloo East and an incredibly short but very slow train journey to London Bridge, we got to London Bridge to discover we had no idea what the final destination of our train to Honor Oak Park was. Fortunately, someone was clever enough there to list all the destinations alphabetically with next train and platforms so we got the first train out of there and turned up at the ground 25 minutes early to find a couple of Medical Students, an organiser and a fellow referee from the Devon Society (who had been working locally the day before and was in Portsmouth the day after). Anyway, come 10am, the sun was looking to shine and there were 4 referees to cover 2 pitches and we were off. What a great day of rugby it was too, from some extremely quick and skillful mens 7s games to some ladies games where a number of players had barely/never played so the challenge was to coach and educate while making a game of it. There were 13 mens sides and 9 womens sides, 2 groups in each competition with the winners and runners up going through. 2 games on and 2 games off worked well, though tweaking my calf muscle in the first game made it painful work for the first couple of hours. Deeps departed at 1pm, exactly the same time as another referee turned up, leaving us still with 4 refs. Group games finished about 5, and then it was into the 2 semi finals in both the mens and womens, followed by the 2 finals. Southampton Uni went on to win the ladies, beating Imperial in the final, though special mention to the Norwich Medic Ladies who took up rugby 4 weeks ago as a separate side from UEA Womens Rugby, and under the guidance of the County Community Rugby Officer went on to reach the semis playing some textbook but none the less incredibly good rugby for sevens, not even taking into account the fact they had been playing 4 weeks! In the Mens, Imperial taught a strong Warwick side a lesson in keeping the ball and punching through the gaps on their way to winning the final. Anyway, the day finished at just before half 6, I refereed probably somewhere around 12 games along with TJing the 2 finals, so my legs were feeling like stone. A quick shower later, and it was into the bar where part 2 of Medic Rugby commenced. With jugs of beer aplenty, the evening wore on, the BBQ was very nice although it did slightly run out! At 9:30, the bar was shut (apparently the Licensing Officer visited earlier that afternoon after last year it got quite rowdy [and last year they were gone by about 8 as they had a dinner at the RSM!]), but the Southampton Uni lot were on the case and after a quick whip round proceeded up to the local off licence £60 richer. After then purchasing way more than £60 worth of alcohol for £60 (either the shopkeeper lost count or he was being incredibly nice), everyone ended back on the bus at 10:30 with about £100 worth of alcohol in various forms and 18 or so people. They were kind enough to give me a lift back to Southampton (some the ladies remembered me from Lytchett 7s [no comments from Simon T please!] and offered me a lift back midway through the afternoon, saving me the possibility of missing a connection and sleeping in a station), so the next 2 hours were spent drinking, celebrating the ladies 1st team winning (and the 2nd team not scoring a point all day), the mens team getting close but not close enough and generally having a good time. Ended up in deepest darkest Southampton I think at 1am. Was lucky enough to be put up overnight, and woke up the next morning with a pounding head! Crawled to the bus stop at midday, and got the train up to Basingstoke, where I got a lift across to spend the afternoon yawning, moaning about how my head and legs hurt, and occasionally refereeing at the Hants U14 Developing Schools Festival.
All in all, it was a magnificent day out and very well organised. Am now sporting my complimentary RSM Rugby Shirt, and can only say to anyone who hears about it next year to go along, it is a very good day out with some very good rugby!
