Old Alleynians RFC

OAs finish in 2nd place after 10 wins from 13 games - by Adam Frost

We finished the 2018-19 season with a heartbreaking final day defeat in our title decider against Old Dunstonians. We ended this season in the dreaded 2nd place once more - to a Blackheath team in the midst of a charge up the league system (this is their top amateur side and they haven’t lost a game since 2017!). As our Vice Captain (and self-appointed 3s historian) Henry Dunn tells me, in the last 7 years, the OAs 3s have finished no lower than 3rd and no higher than 2nd. Whilst this consistency is slightly heartbreaking and frustrating, it is also something to be praised and celebrated - more on this later.

Due to Dunstonians deciding against promotion, we were immediately given the chance to avenge the pain of last season with a home fixture - until they cried off. Nevertheless, the boys were raring to go the following week against the new kids on the block: Blackheath. We travelled down there with a very strong team, including Mike “all positions” Harris at 8. Alas, 2 tries and a conversion from Mike along with 3 other tries weren’t enough to make up for the 3 yellow cards (including 2 at the same time) and we went down 27-32. Always disappointing to start the season with a loss, especially one in that manner, but we were buoyed by the number of familiar faces in the changing room and free flowing rugby being played by anyone in black and blue.

Some teams - lesser teams - would not respond well to a frustrating performance like that one. The OAs 3s are no such team. We promptly won 5 on the bounce, including a 66-0 win over Sidcup where even 31 points from Dunn weren’t enough to steal Man of the Match away from an imperious George Pyrgos who was in the form of his life after a summer in the gym and on the treadmill. Similarly, Beccehamians were beaten 64-0 with clubhouse legend Jake Edgar running in a casual hattrick, as he is often wont to do. Sidcup were soundly beaten in Dulwich thanks to a brace from star new hooker Lawrence White, bringing all the flair from his years in Hong Kong over to the more challenging terrain of SE21.

At this point, it was hard to imagine us playing any better - how wrong I was. Our next outing was against an Elthamians team fielding a not insignificant amount of players paid a weekly match fee. As they used the quite frankly ridiculous hill to their advantage in the first half, I feared this could be a chastising afternoon in the November rain, but the first of 3 tries for James Bluett on the stroke of half time proved the turning point, and we utterly dismantled them in the second half. Bluett’s hattrick was completed with a graceful backs move ending with James under the post, but the real highlight may well have been Captain Frost screaming for the ball, stepping inside 2 defenders, and rampaging straight through a third to touch down just to the left of the posts (Editor’s note: Frosty did not write this paragraph). As he came up for air with a grin as big as the Cheshire Cat’s, Elthamians knew their day was over. Special mention to Tim Lewis who, having joined the club this year and loyally played on the wing without complaint, finally got a chance to wear his preferred number 9 shirt and marshalled the team like Fabien Galthié in his prime.

Next up was a routine home win against the old enemies Beckenham, before we entered a challenging period either side of Christmas. A frustrating 13-10 loss away to Southwark to finish the calendar year was followed by Blackheath doing the double against us - the 21-7 scoreline doesn’t accurately reflect just how close the game was, but either way it was becoming clear we may have to settle for second place once more. With Blackheath remaining unbeaten and somehow playing 3 more games than us, we were in a race against time and coronavirus to overhaul them at the top of the table. 5 more wins in a row ensured we finished well ahead of the rest of the chasing pack before the season was prematurely ended. Highlights of that streak included a demolition of Charlton Park away (despite 2 more yellow cards) in a farewell to Josh “DJ” Byles before he moved to Canada. Just the 12 points for him in his final outing. We’ll miss you Josh.

Our shortened season was, rather fittingly, rounded off with a 23-14 win away at Beckenham. As I mentioned earlier, our frequent finishes on the podium without a trophy could be viewed in a glass half empty manner, but this year in year out consistency should be celebrated: as the middle team of the club, we regularly lose players to the 1s and 2s at the eleventh hour, but have still managed to build a core of players who turn up every week and put their all into the OAs 3s shirt. 65 different players wore that shirt this year, 26 of them scored a try, and 14 of them played in at least half of our games. That is unheard of at our level. Last year’s champions Dunstonians finished in 6th and couldn’t even field a team on multiple occasions. I am enormously proud to lead our team out every single time we step onto the pitch - next year we go one further.