Well, the Maine Collegiate Rugby Championship is now behind us, and those irrepressible Colby Mules have done it again. They overcame some tough resistance to capture both the Men's and Women's titles, on a day perfectly set for their own brand of running rugby. Pictures and a full recapping of the day's events will no doubt be forthcoming on the MCRC Website, but for now I will just send thanks from the club and all present to Dom Tracey for his tireless work in making this event possible, and to all our sponsors, and in particular to Charlie Hews and Hews Truck Bodies and Equipment for their continued financial support.

Portland RFC 24 South Shore Anchors 10

Amidst all the youth and vitality of the MCRC two "grown up" sides took the field in an attempt to show these young shavers a thing or two about how to play rugby. Whether they did or not, or whether anyone was even paying attention, is open to debate, but the two sides enjoyed a spirited encounter in some blustery conditions.

As usually my recollection is limited to a few brief vignettes, and the bucketful of beer afterwards doesn't seem to have helped my memory any. As I remember it the game began at a frenetic pace, and it wasn't long before Portland was pressuring deep in to the South Shore half. It also wasn't long before Andy Nelson found himself in the wrong end of a Tractor sandwich, and as a result he now has a few more bits to his collar bone than the rest of us, and a spare sleeve in most of his sweaters.

In the mean time the Portland pressure paid off with a couple of tries, one for Matt Winch which I don't remember much about (sorry Matt) and another for Shaun Durfee which came from a lineout scrap. Moving at full speed from about ten yards out, there wasn't too much that was going to stop him. South Shore had a few lineout scraps of their own, and they capitalized on some tap ball to string together a few passes and score their first try.

Well, that's enough about them. The second half brought in plenty of fresh legs; some of them even attached to fresh bodies. Portland continued to dominate in the scrum and spent a prolonged period camped on the South Shore line. But there were no Smores (or scores) for the home team, when the inevitable try was disallowed because the ball carrier was apparently held up by some invisible force. But hey, I'm not bitter about that, godammit it!

No matter. The concerted pressure soon paid off when Matt Winch was able to shrug off a couple of tacklers to score his second try. According to Matt his two scores were still one less than he deserved, but hey, maybe he's going to need to get his own blog if he wants to go on about that. So, instead of a hatrick for the Winchenator, Mike Desalle took the bull by the horns and carried it, the ball, and a couple of Anchors over the line for another score, Durfee-stylee.

But those plucky old Anchors never quit, and continued hoisting the ball cleverly in to the swirling winds. This paid off for them when they were able to scoop up a dropped ball and run in it for their second try. Anyway, that's about as much as I can remember of the match, and those of you with conflicting accounts should write them on the back of a twenty dollar bill and send them to me, and I'll make sure that history reflects your philanthropy.

Thanks go to Shaun Durfee and Sarah for their hospitality after the match, and to Joey D. for his entertaining picnic table dismount. I'm afraid that he may have hit his head on the way down, since he was incoherent for the rest of the night.

There. I wrote this whole thing and didn't once refer to them as South Shore Wanchors. Such restraint.