Not much to Crow about.....

The sun shone, over 50 assembled for a pre-match lunch organised flawlessly by Murph, money was raised for the Club and The Yorkshire Regiment, Tom Burnham's regiment, sadly sustaining casualties in Afganistan. The food and company were excellent, the wine mediocre though importantly plentiful, the new club blazers hilarious and the only blight on a sun drenched autumn afternoon was the rugby.

Ah the rugby. Again the side has been reassembled around a very small core of last years players, and whilst individually many on show have obvious ability, the process of them gelling together around a game plan is a slow one. Of last years number, Jefferys continues to develop promisingly, showing increasing aggression and sense of responsibility. The excellent Jayden Dallalana provides the main threat ball in hand, the new half back and centre pairing not yet threatening the line breaks that made last years combinations so dangerous.

On Saturday league leaders recently promoted Crowborough made their first visit to Park Langley, clearly enjoying the rarified air of London SE2. The game started with the old boys pressuring the visitors, who under this pressure coughed up two kickable penalties, one converted by fly half Ashley Rio. Crowbrough came back and pressurized the OD's line eventually burrowing over for an unconverted score, swiftly answered when Alex Lake exploited a gap for a converted try. An exchange of penalties took the old boys into the interval with a narrow 2 point lead.

Things fell away after the break and Crowborough produced 4 more tries, answered by a solitary Rio penalty for an eventual winning score of 35 - 13. Crowborough were no more than workmanlike, their only real creative fulcrum their antipodean centre, but a solid work rate, organisation and a good line out were more than enough to win pulling up on Saturday, a fact that must be of concern to coach Smith. That the second half was nothing like as competitive as the first might also suggest the fitter side won.

the Old Boys seem to lack a focal point that could have been provided by Luke Smart if the skipper hadn't returned to Australia. In his absence the old boys need to find leaders quickly as 1 point from 4 fixtures is relegation form and a few must win games coming up now must be won.