Former Broadstreet regular Nelly Nelson sends his regards from New Zealand:

Phew !!

Things have certainly changed a lot since I have left - a sunny Wimbeldon, an English player in the semi-finals, and, AND a sniff of a chance of wining an Ashes match and leading the series. Extraordinary.

The gloom across NZ has lifted after beating the Wallabies on Saturday. It didn't look too promising after the first 15 mins and the All Balcks were 10- nil down and the Ozzies were playing some exciting open, running rugby. But the Abs managed to slowly wrestle it back into control and grind out the win. They also stiffled most of the open rugby in the meantime - but then a win is a win.

I guess I am just an old fart in a time warp, but all the areas of contest have all but been ruled out of the modern game by the continual tweeking of the laws. Mauls are almost non-existent, pushing a scrum, wheeling or striking against the head has disappeared so they have become a prety meaningless way to restart the game. I suppose the lineout remains an area of some uncertainity but only because of a foul-up between the jumper and the throw -in and seldom because of a clean challenge from the opposition. Scrums and rucks are mainly an opportunity to lore the opposition or the referee into awarding a penalty for some perceived infringement.

I played my first game of Golden Oldies rugby the other week - and jolly entertaining it was too. The opposition was welcomed to the match by the home captain and a round of port was imbided by all in-leiu of a warm-up. There was there a discussion about which laws we were going to play to. No tackling or restraining players in purple shorts, red shorts can be restrained but not tackled to the ground, the maximum of 20m running with the ball before passing was waived, no pushing in the scrum, no kicking outside your own 22m, continuous rotation of replacements, tot port for try scorers, player of the half and any other excuse until the bottles were empty.No one was selected or palyed in a position you simply played to where ever you were standing when the ball passed your way. We played 3 twenty min sessions. There was plenty of trys scored but no-one, including the ref seemed to be keeping score, so the game concluded with a stumble back to the changing rooms for a chilly bin full of cold beers and shower before retiring to the club house.

I played to my normal mediocre standard but compounded that standard by dropping more passes that I have done for ten years (bearing in mind that for several of those years I playing outside of Gary W and so didn't get many passes). My timing in the tackle was also woeful. So much so that I seemed to be resorting to the Dick Clarke school of tackling - ie throw yourself at the opposition's feet and assume they trip over your tangled body. Which seemed to work but I ached like the f*** for days afterwards. At least I was able to inject a bit of youth into the team as our oldest player was 84 years old.

Our next fixture is a couple of weeks away. We aim to play every three weeks but ther eis a shortage of teams and there is a lot of travelling so getting players for away fixtures is not easy. The World Golden Oldies Festival is in Sydney next year - if you get your act together I will see the Broadstreet team there (there is certainly enough old duffers in the club to make-up a squad(or two))

Fingers crossed for the cricket - I am sure England will be able to snatch defeat from jaws of victory given half a chance.

Cheers

Nell