About Our Opposition

Old Walcountians were formed in 1932 by the former boys of Wallington County Grammar School.  The key objective of the club has been to promote the playing of rugby union football and encourage sportsmanship, comradeship and entertainment. This is why the O.W's is a club which takes its rugby seriously whilst maintaining the true rugby traditions of friendship and humour on and off the pitch.

Wallington County Grammar School (W.C.G.S.) is a state funded boys' (with girls in the 6th form) grammar school located in Wallington, Sutton, London. As of September 2008, it had approximately 900 pupils. Places at the school are usually oversubscribed and entrance is via competitive exam. Old boys (and girls) of the school are referred to as "Old Walcountians".

About the Area

Woodmansterne is a village in Reigate and Banstead borough of the county of Surrey, England. Woodmansterne village is located on the B278, which starts at Morden and winds through Carshalton past Oaks Park and into the village. The road continues down to Chipstead Bottom. The railway station on the London to Tattenham Corner Line called "Woodmansterne" is actually located on Chipstead Valley Road Coulsdon just inside the border of the London Borough of Croydon.

The village lay within the Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Wallington hundred.

Woodmansterne appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Odemerestor, derived from Old English "Ode" = (W)ode = Wood, "mere" = pond, and "tor" = high ground. It was held by Richard de Tonebrige. Its Domesday assets were: 15 hides; 1 church, 1 mill worth 20s, 5 ploughs, 4 acres (16,000 m2) of meadow, wood worth 10 hogs. It rendered £8.

The Match:

Tour games are the highlights of a players' season and it was with some anticipation that Lions Vets began to gather, blurry eyed at MacDonald’s Fosse Park for their final match of the season and a trip to Old Walcountians Surrey home. Arranging an 8am meet our ever anxious Captain had built in contingency for the 130 mile expedition, possibly basing his calculation on that of George Davenport the a notorious Wigston highwayman who had made the same journey 300 years earlier.
After various bald squad members took turns at wearing Walshy’s impressive hairpiece and the consuming of some unpleasant fast food was complete the players and entourage boarded their allocated vehicle and headed south in bright morning sunshine. The journey down to Surrey was uneventful and all decamped at the club hotel with several hours to kill. Those who had secured a none playing role took their place in the bar whilst those less fortunate wandered aimlessly around the local shop front and up to the Epsom downs in an effort to occupy time. Eventually the taxi’s arrived and Lions left for the short journey through leafy villages to the Woodmansterne ground.
The club was bustling with activity with a Lacrosse tournament already in full swing (a very physically demanding sport of Native American origin) when Lions arrived and finding a changing room proved difficult. Eventually Lions were housed and began to prepare for the game, the first concern was that the usual shirts had been involved in some washing incident and as a result the shirts had been replaced with those of the 3rd team, unfortunately these shirts had been designed for athletes and not the current incumbents.
The pitches were a long march from the clubhouse and the march from the dead ball line to the try line seemed equally long – very big pitch, not best suited to middle aged men! In the unusual circumstances of being on the pitch 20 minutes prior to kick off those with excess energy participated in a drop goal competition, the aim of which appeared to be knock the beer from Stu Watsons good arm. Whilst Andy Winsland proved adept in the art of the drop goal others around him proved less able, those of note: James Earnshaw & Daniel Quelch, both of whom proved incapable of connecting shoe with ball.

As the opposition arrived it became abundantly clear that pace was likely to be an issue and frantic phone calls ensued to attempt to track down the speedster and occasional Lion, Adam Cryer. The game began, the Hosts showing early intent and running the ball at every opportunity. Lions strayed off side and lots of cheap penalties arose, a quick tap and go from one such penalty saw the home side take an early lead, with a high-speed wing going around the outside to score under the posts to allow an easy conversion 7-0. Shortly afterwards the same wing repeated the trick this time from deep in his own half 14-0. Shell shocked by the early onslaught Lions eventually rallied and attempted to slow the game with solid drives from the pack. Pressure began to tell and the home side gave away a penalty 10m from their line, Little Cookie took up the ball and raced through, breaking through the clutches of would be tacklers to put a score on the board for Lions 14-5. As the half wore on Lions enjoyed more of the ball from a scrum 5m out Buster was able to scramble ball to Daniel for a second Lions score with Adrian adding the extras 14-12.
The half ended and after a glass of port, some personnel changes including the arrival of Adam Cryer the game restarted, Old Walcountians were quick out of the blocks and added a further score 21-12 in much the same fashion as their previous scores. The momentum eventually moved to Lions who again began to make good use of the driving maul before releasing Colonel & Adam in the centres who made good ground on each occasion, Earmarked as danger men they promptly became the recipients of some late tackling from our hosts. A good passage of Lions play saw Adrian and Buster combining forwards & backs creating space out wide to allow Iain a run in from deep, crashing through defenders for another Lions try 21-17. As the game became more tense tempers frayed and a bout of fisty cuffs broke out in midfield a distance behind the play, a few stern words from the referee resolved the incident and the game continued. In an act of unusual diplomacy the Captain replaced himself to avoid a forced departure with Wilba returning for a second stint. With time running down Lions took the lead for the first time in the game a powerful scrum from the pack drove the home side beyond their own goal line and Walshy popped over for the score 21-22. With seconds left a moment of stupidity saw Lions opting to run from deep rather than kill the game and an opposition penalty 24-22 and the game lost.

Tour Managers Review: (To Follow Shortly)