Back in the Old Rugby Routine
It didn’t take long to reacquaint myself with the rugby teams at North Luffenham and Oakham. I played for the station side during the week and the local town side at weekends. However, my participation at Oakham was not as ardent as previously. I fluctuated between the first and second teams there. I was generally happy with this situation. My married family status was already influencing my approach to playing the game; rugby was no longer a primary consideration.
Nevertheless, I was delighted by an initial success achieved with the station side. Playing alongside a completely new set of teammates in the traditional start-of-season tournament at RAF Binbrook in North Lincolnshire, our team of strangers turned out to be easy winners of the competition. The contest, arranged in knockout format, featured all RAF sides from the Midlands and the North. Games lasted 10 minutes per half, with a final of 15 minutes each way.
The picture shows our selection group for the tournament, photographed afterwards at North Luffenham with the “Binbrook Bomb” trophy. Only after this success was it was found out that at least four of the side had represented the RAF Rugby XV at various times. Interestingly for me (positioned in the middle of the back row), six of this team were current or trainee linguists.
The Binbrook tournament is still going, even though the camp was closed down a long time ago. The competition we won was for full 15-a-side teams; soon afterwards the name was transferred to a 7-a-side contest. As recently as 2010 the “Binbrook Bomb” name was resurrected for the RAF’s Annual 7s Tournament at RAF Halton.