We ventured South to the Midlands this week to the ancient city of Lichfield - famous for its three spired medieval cathedral, annual festival of no overall winners rugby, plethora of England Womans Rugby players, Guinness flavoured crisps and fresh, meaty, pork pies behind the bar.

Thanks again to Alison who had organised a coach to take us from Bradwall Road, apologies from Scribbler who was late for the bus despite living about four nanoseconds from the Club - Heinous crime! It was good to see that we had 16 players travelling on the bus and about 800 parents, grandparents, friends, neighbours, hawkers and general hangers-on accompanying them - always makes for a veritable feast of picnics and it looked like The Doc had been baking since she got back from the US of A as she clutched a tin of Brownies for almost the whole day! Those going direct missed some of the poorest singing and joke telling in a generation.....

We arrived at Lichfield and had been off the bus for abut ten minutes, Harry had eaten all his packed lunch already, Scribbler had gone to the club for a briefing that was actually taking place on the pitch and eagle eyed Bastareaud had already spotted the Ice Cream Van - then we realised we were due to kick off against the hosts in the first game. Despite the fact that we were still half asleep, Harry still had a small piece of pork pie in his pocket (just in case) and our brains were still on the bus we played well and were unlucky to lose by the only try of the game - the Lichfield right winger scoring an excellent try - arguably the best player we played against all day.

After this initial outing we improved in each game - playing some great flowing rugby with ball in hand and scoring a number of well-worked tries .... oh and occasionally putting a tackle in! There were some heinous moments during the day... OB1 throwing himself on the floor like a Wendyballer, Bosh attempting a cross-field kick when we had a 5 on 1 and Young Skywalker trying to use The Force and sneak on to the pitch against Leek to add an extra man!

We also had a number of players turning out to represent the Barbarians, Gladiator and Jack became addicts and played several times and Yorkie set off like a rocket on a run destined to be the try of the day before the touch judge ruled that he stepped over the whitewash....... its those size 14 feet! - well done boys, all in good rugby spirit!

An eventful bus journey home revealed that Scribbler and Woody can't sing, Cardboard Chris is no better and Bastareaud knows what a double entendre is now..... earlier in the day he thought it was one of those ice creams with two flakes in it!

On the pitch we Played 5 Won 2 Drew 2 Lost 1, Off it we had a bus journey, some beer, some singing, some ice creams, some more beer, a few jokes and a fun packed Sunday... even if it was Monday when we got home!

And this weeks puzzler

A ladder hangs over the side of a boat in the sea, the bottom rung of the ladder is touching the water. The distance between the rungs is 10cm and the ladder (measured bottom rung to top rung) is 2m long. If the tide rises at 15cm each hour when will the water reach the top rung of the ladder?

Text Pete with your answer 07768 537285