With bright sunshine and a soft pitch, Wheatley geared up to their home double header against Harwell by getting drunk the night before the game. Those offenders were punished, but it did not stop Wheatley claiming the spoils in both games.

The first XV, fielding their strongest side for some time, set in to the Harwell defence from the first whistle. Running rugby allowed the Wheatley backs to scythe the visitors for some memorable tries. The centre partnering of Sean O’Leary, belying his status as third oldest in the squad by setting up Gav Stanton, and Adam Muir, although Muir limped off with a “hurt leg”, allowed Wheatley to stretch the defence and resulted in tries for full back Gav Stanton and hooker/scrum half/prop James Pollard. Brent Ryan also crossed, along with Pete Knipe, to make the score 22-0 at half time.

In the second half, the weather turned and two more tries from Knipe and Gav Stanton were the end of Wheatley’s scoring. Even with Danny “Spartan” Clarke’s rallying call of “Come on Wheatley, don’t let this rain dampen our performance” The clean sheet, held in the first half, was breached when, with the wind and weather behind them, Wheatley’s defence started to crumble. As the weather got worse, so did the rugby. Horizontal hail and rain caused dropped balls, missed catches and wayward passes from both teams.

Upon the final whistle, both sides sprinted for the safe haven on the changing rooms to thaw out and dry off.

Tries – Gav Stanton, James Pollard, Pete Knipe x2, Adam Muir, Brent Ryan

Cons – Gav Stanton