The new T-shirts were dispatched from the printers today - so will be able to see them tomorrow hopefully.

Pulling the trigger on some new t-shirts today. Next up the order for some pink socks to match the kit.

On Sunday we played in the 50th Abingdon 7s. On a beautiful sunny day, ideal for sevens players if not for LCR7s players, we attempted to do better than our previous attempt at the Abingdon tournament in 2003.

With a squad heavily reliant on players from the Chinnor club we opened brightly against perennial Plate winners Ponysmackers. After racing into a 12-0 largely through the outstanding pace of Robbie, we allowed the oppo back into the game to fall behind 12-17. However, with just seconds remaining, substitute and debutant player Brad W scorched through under the posts to draw us level with just the simple conversion to win it. With no-one else willing to take over the kicking duties from the injured Robbie, up bravely stepped Nobby. Silence fell over the Southern Park ground as he lined up for the attempt…only for his kick to fail to overcome what must be the very powerful gravitational effect of the old sewage works. At the time this looked like a grim portent of what the day would hold for the Pink Machine, but as the day panned out this would be a blessing in disguise.

Next up were Chinnor. With Duncs being dropped to the bench this meant that all 14 players on the field were Chinnor XV players so it largely resembled a Tuesday night training session. In the end Chinnor ran out easy winners, but the LCR started to develop some nice technique which would come in useful later.

The final Pool game was against Gosford All Blacks: with both teams seemingly destined for the Plate competition a somewhat relaxed attitude was taken. Both teams used the game as an opportunity to showcase their open running skills, Gosford’s ability to avoid the potential crunching tackles of Sutton et al letting them run out eventual winners by 5 tries to 3.

So the Plate Competition beckoned…

First lamb-to-the-slaughter in the quarter-final was last year’s Cup winners Wallingford. Unfortunately for them they met an LCR side playing some outstanding attacking sevens, and also defending well using the Brodley Method (even when down to 6 players). LCR win by 3 tries to 1.

Semi-final time and Blue Boar step out onto the Ram Rugby pitch to face the full might of the Pink Force, now bolstered by the arrival of Ed “The Unit” Rixon onto the bench. In a hard fought game where all subs were fully utilised the Chemises Roses overpowered Boar to make it through to their 2nd final of the year.

So to the final. 10 minutes each way, 1 minute break - not easy for the senior players after a long day at the coal face. Opponents Grove looked like they had a squad of about 20, average age about 18, so we knew we were up for a battle. Down by 3 tries within the first 2 minutes things looked bleak, but with the arrival of super-sub Sutton a mini-revival ensued. A long distance try from “Bullet” Brad Grobler and a well worked score from Tom “Human Cannonball” Whelan and there was only 1 try in it. Huge pressure was then applied on the Grove defence, only for an unfortunate breakdown to gift them a try in the last minute.

Overall a great day was had by all. Wonderful weather, great banter, definitely the best kit, and a £100 voucher from RAM Rugby. Best of all a whole new set of players blooded ready for the 2006 season.

The squad was as follows: