This Year

18-07-2008 - 20-07-2008

Fat Blokes 2008
Fairies Pink Day Out!!
Tournament Report

For the 5th year running this years tournament was held at Reading Abbey RFC near Caversham in Berkshire from 18th-20th July.
There were 24 mens teams and 6 ladies teams taking part in this the ‘Premier Coarse Rugby Tournament’ which has been copied but in my opinion never bettered (except by ourselves each year!!)

As usual the weekend started late Friday afternoon with most people eager to grab prime spots in the camping village (440 spots sold) and then to progress to the endless round of greeting old friends and meeting new ones in equal measure, not to mention a sharpener or two being imbibed by way of a pre dinner drink!! (purely social of course!!).
Then into the clubhouse for an excellent meal provided for us by the fantastic team at Abbey and for only a fiver!!
Optional black tie or fancy dress applies here with everything from the full ‘James Bond’ to a team of Elvises (or is it Elvii) from the Gypsy Wanderers, I just wish they would remember to put the socks down the front of their trousers not the back!!
Excellent entertainment from our friend Paul Bowen made sure the weekend was seen off to a truly rocking start with great music some dodgy singing (from the crowd) and a truly staggering amount of beer consumed in true Fat Blokes style.
I admit I wimped out about midnight but I am reliably informed the party continued long into Saturday morning which would account for the dazed and confused expressions on many faces when the main event dawned early on Saturday morning.........
Eek provided a safety briefing along the lines of ‘Rugby is dangerous and it can hurt please try to to avoid getting hurt!!’ This was followed by a public health warning on behalf of Bristol Council from Chilly Mick from the Pasty Eaters along the lines of you will need to take medicine before you come into contact with our players which actually turned out to be the most truly awful rough cider known to man. As it turned out it affected them more than it did the other teams!!
The Fairies captained by Matthew ‘Foggy’ Watts took to the field against a Leeds Lardies team which had totally against the spirit of the Fat Blokes been training (still not much else to do oop north I suppose), unfortunately it worked and they beat us 17-7 in a closely fought contest.
Next up were Wobblers from Worcester who had also been training and it showed, loads of muscle in their drinking arms and the worlds second slowest winger after the author!! Still we despatched them in some style and then it really was time for a beer and and to try and find out what HAD happened to my lungs......
Then the infamous Pasty Eaters from Bristol resplendent in their dungarees and straw hats to try and poison us with the famous ‘Natch’, a brew so potent that NASA are looking at it to fuel the Space Shuttle!! Unfortunately for Bris although they put up a good fight for 30 seconds they were also despatched in some style.
The Drunken Wasps were up against a Fairies side growing in confidence and actually playing some decent rugby for a change and the first half was extremely close with maybe only 1 try between the sides at the break then the Reading Rhinos Massive was despatched (Rich H,Diego George Troughton Joe Diaz and me) and we finished the job in some style with 4 tries in about 3 minutes which pulled the wings off the Wasps and that was that.
At that point it was realised that we were now the most winningest fairies team in history and that we were in danger of qualifying for the semi finals of the arse. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued as frantic calculations were carried out and it turned out that Wobblers Leeds and us were level for the second spot behind the Arabian Knights......It turned out that the Wobblers had to beat the Drunken Wasps in their final match by 4 tries to qualify ahead of the pack which as it transpired what did happen thanks to the DW’s posing as Wobblers they did which to the immense relief of all in the Fairies and Lardies camps and then it was remembered that we actually had one more game left against the Knights which due to some careful team juggling by the men in black was more one sided than a one sided thing with one side!!
And there concluded the Flatulent Fairies 2008 rugby campaign and there dear reader the rest of the day descends into the usual round of drinking singing and general revellery!!
JD and the Longfellows made a welcome return to our little soiree lending their unique brand of hollering yelling and excellent music which seemed to go down very well with the assembled knackered throng!!
Excellent food provided by our friend Nav and his kebabs ensured a lot more beer was soaked up and therefore more drunk (don’t think that was just me!!) and the night went on and on and on.....*
*insert as many ‘ons’ depending on how late your night was!!
Your intrepid correspondent bowed out at about 1.30 due to captains commitments in Jacks Match on Sunday (separate report to follow).

And that dear reader summed up the Fairies day out at the International Fat Bloke 7’s 2008
Next years event is also at Abbey RFC on the weekend of 17th July 2009.......See you there!!

David Marsh.


Full results and a Tinkerbelles report to follow.........

Location & Directions

Fairies Pink day Out [visit website]

Directions to Reading Abbey RFC are all available on their club website:

http://www.abbeyrfc.org

Map: Click here