We’ve come a long way, ladies April 28, 2009

Yesterday was the fairy tale end of a season, and the opening (hopefully) of a whole new chapter of rugby for Olney Ladies.
I’ve been playing for Olney for donkeys years, since I was 18 (I’m now in the 26-34 box on surveys, eeps!) – the Ladies section was formed around 16 years ago by a bunch of men’s team WAGs who fancied a go themselves. In the early days, the social side seemed highly important and I remember when I first joined some of the legendary drinking nights (three legged pyjama pub crawl? oh yes!), and the friendly faces down the club that made me stay – and which still make me stay. There are plenty of tales of games of old girls too, from the player who hoiked a tampon up her nose to stop a nosebleed, to the player who had no idea about rucking so just piled on with a bellyflop. Legends, all of them!

We’ve come a long way since I first started and we averaged about 9 people at training and scraped together a scratch side on a Sunday morning. Yesterday brought years of work from everyone involved to fruition. All those seasons developing training, recruiting players and creating a play hard/but have fun mentality paid off. We won our league, and we now are looking to go up to North One (subject to AGM vote).

me and my sis talk tactics ahead of the big game - or are we gossiping about our weekends?

North One is a whisker off the premiership – it’s going to be a big step up, and a long way off – some of our games will be 3.5hours drive away! But it’s also going to be an excellent challenge – we always play better against harder teams and we have nothing to lose. So what if we get mullered and come back down? It will be worth a try, and I reckon we’ll do better than we think.

So what’s next for Olney Ladies? If we make the move up, then we need ultra-dedication from the players to develop our game; we need commitment to training and playing away; we need to fundraise and get support from the club for coach trips (yay!) – and most importantly, we need to keep our ethos of playing to the best of our ability – but keeping our rugby FUN (in a bun)!

prettiful!

Campervan colouring contest – the winner(s)! April 14, 2009

OK, the moment you’ve all been waiting for has arrived!!

 

We had a good number of entries in and after a lot of deliberating and cogitating over cups of tea, we have made the decision to go with not one, but TWO designs!

 

Yes readers, not only is painting a campervan yourself quite mental in itself, we are going a step further by having a different design on each side of the van. 

 

The two we are going with represented two things we love – gardening, and surfing – so congratulations to Dean first off for his sea and surf combo:

And the other side, garden related, actually goes to two people who came up with similar ideas: Monkey, firstly (remember those giant bees?):

And Mary’s garden wonderland:

 

Well done to everyone who entered, we loved looking through your handiwork (eerrr, but Mr Blobby was never gonna win!) – a special mention goes to Helen who submitted three strong contenders, Jessica our youngest entrant and also Susan Condon who did a great hippy theme.

 

Congrats then, go to Dean, Monkey and Mary all of whom will get a home visit from the pimped-up Trevor when it’s painted. And when it moves again. What horror will strike into the face of their neighbours when they see the camper rocking up??! Ha!

 

Anyhoo gang, we’ll be posting up regular pics of the new look Trevor for your delight, so watch this space (also I have the proviso that if it looks shite, we’re paying to have a re-spray).

campervan – some top entries! April 9, 2009

Some brilliant ones here. First Aly, who’s gone for the psychadelic type look:

Superb job, and I reckon quite easy to do?

 

Next, it’s over to Helen who’s done not one but THREE entries. This girl is keen! See what you think; I reckon she’s a contender:

Here’s entry number two…

And the last one, this is pretty good I reckon:

 

 

Loving the ‘proper job’ – Helen knows The Boy well!!

 

We’ll be looking at all of the entries over Easter and if we’re stuck between a couple I’ll stick them up here and you can all vote on it – we’ll be in your hands….eeep!

Campervan, in an English Country Garden (with giant bees) April 8, 2009

Two more lovely ones here, both drawing on a garden type theme.  Mary’s using a ’secret’ garden design with an ingenious blackboard paint section at the back where we can scribble stuff on.  Potential for lewd graffiti? Quite high; but I like it!!

And here’s the front and back of Mary’s design, with that all-important blackboard bit:

The other entry is from Monkey Morris, who’s developed a simpler but equally effective design, which includes the rather threatening giant-bees:

Nice work from you both!

Only two days left so remember, if you haven’t done so already, to get your entries in to : tartuptrev@live.co.uk

Movement on the camper van April 5, 2009

Here’s the entry form for the van design competition – only a few days left! We’ll be looking at all the entries over Easter so make sure you get yours in…

 

The good news is that a successful test of the van last weekend  took us to Rutland and back.  There was a hairy moment as we backfired our way out of Kingsthorpe and chugged painfully up hills, but Trevor made it and a few running repairs led to a much smoother journey back.

we made it...there and back...just

 

Now he just needs to look the part!  Get your entry in…

Wedding preparation: watch gory violent film April 1, 2009

Last night we met again with Father John from the Northampton Cathedral, who’ll be doing our wedding ceremony. He is very chilled about everything which in turn makes me chill out a bit (very useful following on from this post). Last night we got to go into the Church and experience where we’d be standing on the big day. Father John roughly ran through who goes where and what happens and then he did a nice blessing for us. Spookily, the blessing included the passage that we are having as our Gospel reading in the ceremony!!

It was really quite surreal to be stood on the altar opposite The Boy with a priest in front of us. I felt a bit emotional actually! But this is not good – must not cry and ruin mascara on the day. Must not.

Anyhoo, following on from our altar experience and The Boy quizzing Father John on the history of the church’s architecture, we were set some homework. Last month it was to finalise our readings and hymns (cue lots of early morning singing of hymns by me to The Boy and cue The Boy falling asleep whilst I read him potential readings). This month, we have to watch Gladiator, the film. That’s it!

All Father John will say is that this film shows the origins of the word “sacrament”, and as we’re going through the sacrament of marriage, it’s apt to watch it. This will be a lot more straightforward! I’m arranging to borrow the DVD from a mate and all being well, The Boy will stay awake and we’ll learn something.

Next meeting Father John is coming to our house for dinner which leads to more preparation – what to cook for a clergyman?!