The definition of Rugby “Vet” is a player who has attained, or in most cases “long surpassed” the age of thirty five years and yet for some inane reason thinks its fun to put his creaky body on the line once again in order for it to be bruised, knocked, studded and scraped for the benefit of his team mates once again.
Rugby “Vet” is a strange creature indeed, one who having failed to find happiness in any of the more sedate sports and usually to the disdain of his wife or partner, is keen to escape the shackles of approaching middle age “or in some cases a bit older” for just one more valiant charge with ball in hand.
Gibraltar has its fair share of these poor deluded creatures and I know that only to well, because you see, I’m one of them, and in recent years we have taken our foolhardy selves off to places far and wide in search of heroism and this year is no exception.
29 of the best over 35 year old local rugby players departed for San Sebastian where they competed in the European Golden Oldies 15 a side tournament which took place over three days being the 12th to the 14th June. The Lord Nelson Gibraltar Rugby Veterans XV represented Gibraltar at the largest ever rugby festival with over 60 teams attending and 1500+ players.
Gibraltar played 6 x 25 minute games over 2 days with a rest day in-between. This seems easy on paper but old bodies just do not recover over a ‘rest’ day, indeed they get worse.
Although there is still plenty of competition in the games, with the younger, sprightlier, vets looking for a performance worthy of England Rugby, the “point” of the game is more along the lines of fun friendship and fraternity and this year’s event in San Sebastian was no exception with several social activities planned including a visit to a typical Basque country Cider house. The busy tourist area of San Sebastian proved to be a lively venue for this years’ tourists with good rugby played and some old friends reunited and new ones made.
Don’t be too dismissive of my description of the games being played at a “more sedate” pace though, expect a few black eyes and lumps and bruises on the returning players and hopefully the bragging rights to at least a little bit of silverware.
The season has started successfully with two new sponsors coming on board to support the ever-present Lord Nelson’s: CGICE Insurance and STM Group. This years tour is the third such tour in recent years, last years tour took in the Alandroal region of Portugal with a visit to Juromenha a tiny little village which is host to a number of rugby clubs in the area and also home to a long time friend of Gibraltar Rugby where we received a very warm welcome, (It was at least thirty degrees in the shade) and in 2013 the club visited Prague taking part in the previous European Golden Oldies Festival, where we acquitted ourselves well and even won a game.
Gibraltar Veterans RFC
Season Highlights
by President Bob Massey
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