With the 2nd XXVI playing their first game of the 2014/15 season in the BBO&4 North, morale was high with new players getting their first game in purple and players returning from injury, notably Gavin Belcher, a fans favourite.

Opponents Alchester were somewhat lacking a team.Thankfully Wheatley’s squad was bursting at the seams and therefore were happy enough to supplement their team.

From kickoff Alchester were on the rampage and had scored 2 tries within the first 10 minutes. This did not please Peter Ramsdale one bit which resulted in a classic rallying cry where he basically said that our performance was f***ing S**t, repeated many times over. This had little effect on Wheatley’s performance as Alchester went on to score three more tries, converting one. Maybe he should have mentioned that they were quims!?

Wheatley, however did managed to start putting some phases together with Gavin Belcher and Robert George finally getting some clean ball and whilst camped on Alchester’s 22, Rob threw a marvellous pass to Luke Durbin, but Luke decided to go one better than Sean O’Leary and took the ball with his face. This upturn of performance was to no avail as Wheatley ended the half down 27-0.

With the birthday boy suitable annoyed, a raft of changes were introduced, most noticeable was the now bouncer esq centre partnership of Ben Kelsey (world’s strongest man at 105kg) and Matthew Chadbone (Tigger).

The second half kicked off with Wheatley on the attack. The ball was now coming from the back of the rucks at a suitable pace and Tigger was unleashed to score Whealtey’s first try, much to the relief of the Wheatley team.

This annoyed Kelsey somewhat and therefore he took control of the ball and ran in four tries. The backs joined him and ran in try after try; Oliver Tyson, minus cramp, went under the post twice and Tigger, from a glorious off load by Josh Hillsdon also bagged his 2nd try. However, the best try went to Gavin Belcher; Kelsey had again broken the Alchester defensive but with his legs now failing, he passed to Gav who went over to score, much to the crowds delight. And to top it all off, Gav got the conversion. This sent the crowd wild.

The forwards were somewhat bemused that they had not scored and Anthony Cortez decided to start running through Alchester’s defence which finally led to Matthew Gibb (BeeGee) going over for his try in the corner. BeeGee celebrated with the classic Gareth Bale love heart for his beloved poochie.

Alchester were not finished and Tigger, for some reason, decided to pass to Kelsey on the half way line. However, Keith Parsler (now a Wheatley exile) intercepted the pass, which was a wise choice as if he hadn't, Kelsey was ready to run through him. Tigger then took chase and managed to catch Keith on Wheatley’s 22 forcing a knock on.

The game ended with Wheatley winning 54-32 making the birthday boy extremely happy along with the whole team kicking their season off with a win.

Try scorers:
Kelsey – 4
Tigger – 2
Olly – 2
Gav – 1
BeeGee – 1