Over 150 guests sat down to a fantastic lunch. Thank you, Mr President, for organising a wonderful day. Also, thank you to the legend that is Mr David Coe for his auctioning skills.
As 3pm approached, the Black Cats knew they needed an improvement on last week’s tough day in Coventry. Coach Joe Hill in the programme notes stated that setbacks are part of any meaningful journey. Another Coventry side, Old Coventrians, provided the opposition on a remarkably dry pitch one.
Harborough started the game at pace, and soon Sam Staff was breaking tackles to get over the whitewash. 5-0. The attacking options open to the men in black were on show, and the second try came via the powerful frame of Will Marriott. Will was to score a hat-trick of tries during the afternoon, winning him the man of the match award. The lads from the under-16s making the selection. They had also acted as waiters at the lunch. Well done, fellas.
Josh Purnell, the ever-reliable scrum-half, now darted over for one of his trademark tries. With Monty Maule making the conversion, the score was a menacing 17-0.
The opposition were working with scraps and struggled to get into the Harborough half. With Will Marriott scoring two tries in quick succession, the large crowd was being treated to some fine running rugby. 36-0. The mighty frame of the Man Mountain Jack Digby went over for another try. His second in the week. I somehow missed his try last week. Sorry, mate. For a front row forward, Diggers is up there on the try list.
Outside half Tom Claffey completed the scoring, and Monty Maule converted to take the score to 50-0. The referee blew for no side. An all-round professional performance from the Black Cats.
With the Easter weekend approaching, a much-needed rest for all next week. On Saturday, 11th April, the league comes down to a one-match shoot-out to win promotion. As a player, is there anything better than playing in a game like this? This squad is more than capable of raiding in Northampton and giving the supporters a great day out also. We need a massive number of supporters down at Rushmere Road in two weeks. Let’s get down there and make some noise.

Tony Cochrane