The Hills Blog

Saturday saw Cartha welcomed to Fortress Hughenden. Both teams having had a decent start to the season, and with a lengthy rivalry behind them the Fort’ was set for a hard-fought battle on the hallowed turf. Hills came out on top with 2 wins from 2 last year, but word on the street was Cartha were pretty confident, and after a poor show from Hills last week, they’d have been forgiven for being a bit on the cocky side…
A few notable absences in the team after some worrying injuries and a sending off at gloomy Ardrossan saw some enforced changes in the 1XV. With the 2XV boys playing in a very competitive league this year there should be some quality competition knocking about at training, a good position for the coaches to be in.
As ever actual facts may be gleaned from the match report at hjrfc.com, with, we have been reliably and repeatedly informed, an entirely factual and established scoring system, last used in 1942, I think…not as fictitious as previously reported, but ridiculous none the less.

An exciting game, great atmosphere in the ground, Newsteam had the luxury of a seat in the stand, out of the firing line of Keithy angry-face, but still not a stress-free encounter. Sitting up in the stand next to Mama-Gus we nearly found ourselves in the midst of some fisticuffs with the Cartha bufties after some close-quarters holler-offs, and animated discussion on the rules, and the referee’s…ahem…merits? Our money’s on Mama-Gus, should a real fight ever break out…
From the stand rugby was average with flashes of good, excitement was high, the score was tight. Some individual magic from Fireman Stu (*siiiiighhh*…) sorted the boys out, who raised their game to play for their Captain, set off what was ultimately a win, but by no means an easy or decisive one..27-21.HIlls always looked the better team, Cartha didn’t seem to have much to offer, but our boys failed to close the game out, didn’t capitalise on Cartha’s weaknesses in open play, and handed them a few cheap points. Not good enough. Cartha bossed the scrum, with the Hills pack struggling, something they made up for at line-out time, with Rosey on form, and Hazzy’s throwing more up to scratch than recently. Hadden had a good game at 9, bossing the forwards. But there is still something missing, lucky for Hills Gussy had a good game on the kicking side, and covered well at the back, but against a team with what looked like a less-than-alert backline Hills made hard work of the victory. Where’s the pretty rugby…?
Anyways, a win is a win, and maybes we are being too hard on the boys, but it just seems they have so much more to give, if they had a bit more belief, a bit more fight, they could close these games out.
Notable performances from the kind-of-sort-of new prop, who Newsteam’s never seen before, a man who went away and came back again, Will Goulden- Hills “Goulden-boy”…? Who made a few thumping tackles, Dave Simm who looked more switched on and aggressive in open play with some great close-quarters tackling, and some penetrating runs, to new winger boy who looked pretty quick, will hopefully get a chance to use his gas in games to come, and to Captain Stu who looked sharp, scored a nice try from the back of a line-out, and lead his pack, seems to be settling into his captain booties.
All things considered Chosen One goes to Hadden, high-pressure game, covering for injured golden boy Davy, he played well and obviously impressed the boss-man. Ladies Choice this week, as chosen by another guest lady pundit- who’s rugby experience extends to an impressive 1 month of spectating experience- goes to “that boy that does all the kicking stuff”, who we suppose to be young Gus, on account of Chicken being the only other “boy” who does a bit of kicking stuff, but ladies favourite…I suppose it could happen, but we had the ladies eyesight and fanny-o-meter radar checked, all seemed in working order, so we supposed Gus was the more likely choice.
Well done boyos, trip to Irvine next week. Hopefully this is us on the up…
Ladies played Cartha, billed (by themselves) last year as the best team in Glasgow, on Sunday, report to follow.

HillJills welcomed Kirkcaldy to Fortress Hughenden for their first outing of the ‘09/’10 season. Banter had been high, training had been good, and the girls were raring to go. This season sees the introduction of co-coach Chris Reid who’s giving us some of his time to marshall the backs. Show-pony’s have consequently been looking strong, and expecting a lot of ball…greedy besoms. So, excitement all round, with some chooooooons on the changing rooms, the ladies were getting set for a big day. Then came the news that Kirkcaldy in an act of early season “special”ness had sent a veritable netball squad of 12 players…12? You’re havin’ a Giraffe! We hear you say, but no. 12 it was. So 15 v 12. No mercy in premier rugby, this being the team who cost us the league last year with an early season loss at Kirkcaldy, they can’t be discounted, we took to the pitch. Blooding a few newbies, and with a return to the field from some injured’s Hill-Jills were set, and Kirkcaldy’s faffing wasn’t going to get in the way.
Out we went, secured a bonus in the first quarter, backs were looking good, but still needing a bit of tightening up, forwards were solid but again need to sharpen up a bit for the tougher opposition to come. All round we played well, some ridiculous solo runs from kick-offs discounted the team played well, Kirkcaldy put up a decent defence in the middle, but were no match for our extra ladies out wide. We played some expansive rugby, the rach’n'jooolz show at 9/10 ruled the game, just the way we like it, directing play and creating some magic, Moggs and little Pup showed some blistering pace on the wings, the face of things to come hopefully, the back row were dynamic in the loose as ever with Dawg leading from 8, getting her bosh on. Hazel looked dangerous from 15, and kicked a good few conversions. Kezza’s wee kicking feet’ll have to do something magic to keep a hold of kicking duties…
Chosen one of the week, a first for this season, goes to Rachy Nic at scrum-half, who ran the show, kept the forwards in line and had some decent distribution for our running backs. We’re raising the bar this year, setting it high, there is a lot more to come from the HillJills crew.
A decent crowd turned out to cheer the ladies on, unfortunately not quite the show of rugby we’d hoped for, the game was cut short at 60 mins, Kirkcaldy seemed to lose interest towards the end, and HillJills recorded their first league win, 78-0, not the best of circumstances but a good win nonetheless, and a warm-up for the Glasgow derby this week as Cartha come to Fortress Hughenden…we shall see what is to come. Excitement is building in the HillJills camp, with great competition for places everyone has a point to prove if they want to be starting from here on in…notable absence of Kitchener next week sees Chris Reid taking the reigns, the first time he’ll see the ladies play, so some Hillhead magic at Fortress Hughenden, this Sunday 2pm KO. All the cool kids are going…

Hillhead/Jordanhill travelled to the gloomy climes of Ardrossan, which apparently is right next to Satcoats, and a stones throw from a beach, last week to record their first loss of the league campaign. Hills got off to a flier, finding the Ardrossan club-house in record time, thanks to some solid navigating and few hints and tips from Morgan, who apparently has been there before. It’s the darkest place in the world, says he, it’s always dark…we wonder if maybe he’s a little bit scared of the dark?
So we got there, and that is just about where the success ended. Not having come away from Garnock with any positives the boys had to start playing lest the wrath of Keith build and he actually went on fire, the old Kukri fleece isn’t as fire-retardant as you might think…in a selfless act of Health and Safety awareness Keith spent most of the game under the posts, away from the crowd, in a stiff breeze, keeping the fire at bay.
Things that went badly include…kicking, indulging in a little kicking tennis rather than finding touch, in open play, from penalties, our two finest can keep the ball in the park in any situation. Contact area was sloppy, poor ball retention, one too many going one step too far and losing the ball. back yourself, yes, but you’ve got to back the rest of them too, set it up, tidy it up and play with it…the back play was uninspiring, the forwards looked a bit lost again, a la Garnock, we need some Captain’s magic to get the boys going, Captain Stu was reliable and solid, as ever, but no magic today. An early injury to Angels saw a swap-shop on the wing bringing Chris Jubb into the fray, looked a little off game standard, Angels had a few good runs early on, looking dangerous with bal in hand out of position on the wing, so we’ll be hoping to see him back soon…another knock came in the shape of an injury to Marty, who is apprently called the Bearsden Lighthouse, in his hip-hop crew…of Mitchell Snr, doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue…so off came Marty, which saw a pack reshuffle. The pack had looked to play a decent game of running rugby in the warm-up, a few changes from last week saw a dynamic back 5, mostly all back row, who should’ve run the show playing some quick ruck rugby. There was clearly an epic fail here…Newsteam’d like to see this set-up again, bit more fire, bit more drive and it could be a winner.
In among all of this stuff Vinnie was sin-binned. Never one to do things by half measures he evidently decided one wasn’t enough, body-slammed an Ardrossonian and got himself sent off. So a wee bit of a pack reshuffle next week too…
One final bad thing that happened, in this concise version of bad things that happened, was an injury to Scrum half David that saw hi confined to the wing. In technical medical type terms his thumb is gubbed, off he trotted to l’hopital, operated on on Sunday, and Keith may have a shiny new fixed scrum-half David, complete with bionic thumb, for Christmas, if he’s lucky.
So, awards for this week- Chosen One, for a consistent, tireless performance to David Armstrong, there’s only so much he can do at Scrum-half, he did a lot of it, but not much happened round about him. Ladies choice this week went to Stuart Rose, who again was strong a dynamic, but maybe needs to start leading a bit more when the boys heads are down, doing his bit as a senior player, as Hillhead/Jordanhill standards go…with an average age of 14 and a half Rosey’s an old man in the Hills team.
The trip home saw a slight detour as we got our heavymajorfecking junctions a bit mixed up. The detour allowed a scenic safari of Saltcoats, letting the boys peruse the local wildlife with the occassional mating call out the window…with a large population of the canine variety noone’ll be high-tailing it back to Ardrossan any time soon.
Chump of the week will go to the Saltcoats planners who put the road in the wrong place and resulted in us getting a little bit way-laid, but definitely not lost. Fools!
Cartha has already been…and will be written about soon, have to give it a bit of time, let the truth and facts fade a little.

A deservedly blog-less week last week, on account of the unremarkable show from Hills at Fortress Hughenden we thought we’d wait and report on what would surely be an exciting trip south to the beaches-and-ice-cream territory that is Ardrossan. Turns out Newsteam is better (though only marginally) at reporting what has already happened than at guessing what will happen in the future. Ardrossan was pretty horrendous, train crash, rage inducing, cringe worthy rugby sprinkled with injuries…so this fortnight will have only a teeny-wee snippet in the bloggy Hillhead/Jordanhill history.
Garnock – As a whole was scrappy and disjointed, seemingly lacking direction and definitely lacking any kind of calm or composure. With a very early score and two big wins behind them the boys may have been a bit complacent, expecting the win to come. It didn’t. And when it didn’t come easily the back up plan of say…playing rugby…failed miserably. So we had a wee punch-up, lost a few million line-outs, tackled like a visually impaired chess team, and somehow managed a win 21-13. The world was distinctly unimpressed, the referee was fairly awful, Keith rage-face was most definitely present, and the Garnock game was best left behind.
Chosen one was once again vetoed, on account of a distinct lack of performance. Ladies Choice, picked by special guest lady analyst was Donald Pitkethly at 8, who was solid, and has shown definite improvements in this early part of the season, not an easy task as he stepped into the still warm shoes of ex-Captain Cammy over the summer.
Post match saw the second annual rugby quiz, headed up by Gaffer on the mike. The club is all quizzed out it seems, turn-out was poor, but there were some delights and hilarity for those who did turn out. Notable attendance, taking time out from their busy schedules, was from the table of superheroes who were rather successful on the quiz front, I think they might actually have won, though in some cases less than successful on the fancy dress front. Special fancydressgrandprizeoftheweeeeeek goes to DanDan-the-man-who-can as Mr Incredible, special mention also to Bananaman for extra-special home-made effort going into his costume.
Chump of the week, reserved for post-match event- though a sinbinning for handbags on the pitch set him off to a flier- goes to Chris Tulloch for crimes against humanity, rocking up to what is, essentially, a public bar clad in far too much, far too tight lycra, leaving far too little to the poor, innocent imaginations present.
Post quiz saw a dancefloor workout at Viper. The powers that be at Viper unwittingly elicited Keithy-rage-face by pitching us off our podium and out onto the street at the ridiculously early hour of 2am. Viper, we shake our collective Newsteam head in disappointment…
On a final note, happy anniversary to Keith and Rachel )

In an unusual display of punctuality this sees a second league post within the week of a game finishing, buying time for when this dedication slips later in the season…
Saturday saw Howe of Fife visit Fortress Hughenden. Well on their way to 50 unbeaten league games Howe most likely swaggered into the fort’ brimming with well-earned, but still slightly annoying, verging on cocky, confidence. “Most likely” we say as newsteam were watching from afar, averyfar, and it’s hard to make out confidence from 150 miles away. But worry not, we’re not called newsteam for nothing, so with ears like the eyes of a hawk, findy-out journalistic skills to parallel the oracle, and a number of “men on the inside”, very much in a prison stylee, we have an assortment of facts and opinions and snippets to report.
So a hard fought game, Hills forced to up their performance, stepping up another gear out of pre-season and a distinctly average performance last week. It seems the challenge is what the boys needed, they did indeed raise their game and take it to the Fifers.
Snouts report Fanny had a good game at 10, directing play with a bit more confidence than of late, exerting some control in his back line, the front 5 had some good ball carries and controlled the scrum well after the shambolic event that was the scrum-down-ho-down last week. Gussy had a good solid kicking game and got a bit more involved from the back, but there still seems to be more to come from him. Back row were strong and dynamic in the contact as ever, a lady reportedly fainted at the sight of fireman Stu flooring a Fifer, but what’s new there…
The boys superior fitness and drive to win showed through in the end as they ran out 53-10 winners, good work converting pressure into points, something they struggled with a little last year. In more dramatic news this victory earned them one thumbs up and – reportedly- a smile from chief Keith. Quite a turn-up for the books so early in the season, better keep it up boys, I wouldn’t want to be the one wiping the smile off his face…
A well deserved Chosen One of the week goes to Vinnie who clearly made an impression, and has done throughout pre-season, getting his bosh on with some strong running and ball carrying, a decent work rate, and some hard work at training to improve on any mistakes and impress the Boss man.
Ladies Choice this week goes to a player who makes life hard for himself in the award stakes by setting the bar pretty high. A strong, consistent performer, maybes more noticeable in his absence when the play that comes so easily from him falters. Quite a build up for a little guy, eh…? Ladies Choice, most definitely NOT resembling an excited little puppy, is David Armstrong.
Off to a flyer with a full set of awards this week, we also have the first Chump of the Week for ‘09/’10. This particular infringement hails from the pre-season friendly against Stirling County, where, rested for a quarter a certain burly young man looked pensive, sat on the bench among his team mates. Perhaps analysing play? Checking out the competition for his jersey? Figuring out some tactical plays and lines of running?
His thoughts became clear as he declared to his team mates:
“I don’t know about the rugby, but Stirling are certainly the prettiest team in the league”
Two awards in one week, Vinnie? That is quite a performance to live up to…

After a banterful trip to Braemar for some Highland games action Newsteam will be back pitchside this week for some proper in-depth, insightful sports reporting. Something like that anyway…
This week sees 1XV home to Garnock, 2XV home to Hawks, with 2As travelling to Waysiders.
How’s about starting a campaign to call the 2As the “Double A’s”, anybody? Throw it out there…see where it takes us, boob jokes are always a wee bit funny, right…?

Fortress Hughenden is the place for a fun-filled Saturday as post-match sees the return of Quiz-master Cammy’s Big Brain Quiz, so get revising folkies, kicks off at 7 in the members bar, some pounds to enter, everybody welcome )

Newsteam has come under pressure lately from certain ladies about inadequate coverage of the HIll-Jills’ end of season exploits. For this there isn’t really any excuse…I’m a slow typer? I’ve been suffering the emotional come-down of a nearly-but-not-quite season? All of the above…? So here are some potted highlights…
Last we heard the Ladies were in contention for a League/Cup double, and were headed for a Cup semi-final the day after the club dinner- scheduling ERROR.
So off we went, mini-bussed by coach Kitch, and side-kick for the day Keith, to Dreghorn Barrack to play, having been ousted from Watsonians’ by ridiculous cricket. Some of the travelling support were a little worse for wear after an evening of fun, but turned out to lend their vocal support, the ladies were raring to go having had a tee-total club dinner, quite an achievement for some. Not an achievement on account of their alcoholism, but on account of the relentless beating they took from the top table…but all that was over and we were kicking of for a semi-final. Having beaten Watson’s the previous two fixtures the ladies were confident but hadn’t discounted the Edinburgh team.
Turns out it was an easy win, some say they could have won in their beautiful dresses and heels…but who knows. A couple of injuries dampened the fun of the day with Moggs going home with a broken wrist, and Katt back to Glasgow with a separated AC joint.
So back to the club house where an impromptu dance-off on the wall at Myreside, Clublands rocking the mini-bus attracted attention from the local posh-folks….Glasgow oiks, it’s just not cricket…

So, roll on finals day. Unfortunately, for the first year ever the ladies weren’t going to Murrayfield, but to Lasswade instead where they’d play Murrayfield Wanderers, who’d easily disposed of Royal High in the semi. Murrayfield, already crowned league champions, were confident as ever, having won the cup last year. Rumours that they’d continued their particularly knobby tradition of having clothes printed with “Cup winners” in advance remain unconfirmed. But Murrayfield, would they do that, really…?
The game was tight, Hillhead Jordanhill played a great game of rugby, massively better than anything they’d played all year, taking the game to Murrayfield. A high tempo game, marked by some incredible tackling and rucking from the Hill-Jills. Murrayfield’s one danger player, in Lucy Millard, saved them from the brink again, a great player, hitting angles, with good pace and vision, Millard can turn a game around for Murrayfield who often piggy-back on her performance, which has saved more than a few games for the Edinburgh outfit.
Murrayfield ran out eventual winners. A great performance by Hillhead/Jordanhill, worn down towards the end by superior fitness in the Murrayfield squad and some good running by Millard. Well done to all the girls, a good achievement, but tainted by great disappointment. This year good isn’t enough, great is what we aim for.

Second in the league, runners-up in the Cup. A good season, lots to build on.

First girls league game vs Kirkcaldy at Fortress Hugenden KO 2pm Sunday 20th September, with Cartha the following week, come down and support your club, having lost a few players but gained a fair few numbers over the summer the ladies are ready to set their standard early in the league, be part of it.

Well, that was a terribly serious update…not the shape of things to come mehopes.

After a small break for refreshment, and a touch of pre-season, Newsteam is back online to bring you all the news and views fresh(ish) from the field at Fortress Hughenden and beyond. For our first installment, a quick round-up of pre-season with a considerable dollop of Hillhead/Jordanhill 1XV v Dumfries in farfarawayland.
Pre-season, what I have seen of it at least, has been a bit…flat. A fair turn out sometimes, plenty variety, definitely challenging, but missing something. There seemed to be, from the sidelines, a lack of fire, competition, drive…Pre-season isn’t there to be ambled through…but, it is over, and we are into the league now, so any changes’ll have t be made on the hoof. The pace picked up over the friendlies in the last few weeks, with a reportedly epic trip to Inverness doing wonders for team bonding…mostly, and the boys were looking not bad a Dalziel last week, and seemed fired up for Dumfries.
So off we trundled down the motorway: the beautiful, if slightly saft, backs’ bus, and the rough and tumble chaos of the forwards’. Slow and steady wins the race and the backs soon found themselves out in front as Grant played bish-bash-bosh with an Audi, and Captain safety regaled us with tales of the time he once almost reached the speed limit…said “creative driving” from a certain forwards’ coach nearly saw a set of luminous rucking shields littering the road, but the backs took charge and all was solved. We took the scenic route to the rugby ground, via a nice church and a chunk of river, encompassing almost none of the directions we’d been given. The forwards on the other hand, not wanting to rock the boat followed the directions and arrived mere minutes before us.
Warm-up was good, good intensity, everyone seemed switched on, the pace definitely quickened and the heads up after a good week at training. For a full match report, courtesy of Mitchell Snr, complete with entirely fictional scoring system, see the main webpage, for an assortment of in between bits, read on…
Some points, the presence of David back at 9, most definitely NOT looking like an excited little puppy, made a massive difference from last week, with better interplay, and more decisive go forward ball, Fanny McCulloch made himself known in his regular spot at stand-off [ed- "big fanny, as usual, at 10" might scan better?] and Angels had a few good runs out of position on the wing, Fireman Stu showed a bit of form, but still has more to come so we hopes…the scrum was a bit of a riot, not helped by the Ref, a bit of creative running(on somebody’s head)saw their 12 sin-binned, and Hills capitalised on their man advantage, to go some points to less points up at half time.
There were a few solid performances, nothing spectacular, on this account chosen one of the week has been withheld. Coach Keith has his hands firmly in his pockets, no thumbs-ups handed out yet. Ladies choice for the week was Marty Lane with his sticky-mitt hands in the line-out and some good support and interplay with the backs.
The view from the sidelines saw quite a crowd in the stand, a number of lovely WAGs in attendance. Lifeguards were in attendance when a replacement front row had to be rescued from a puddle of his own drool as he was found sitting with his back to the game, gazing up into the stand. Newsteam was a little bit sick in their mouth at the sight of Mitchell Snr, glasses teetering on the tip of his nose, eyebrows cutting all kinds of shapes, enlisting the help of some lovely ladies with the finer details for his match report.
There was a little tension on the sidelines with some poor attitude on display, Quarters thrown aside, dummies spat, toys out the pram and all that. Words will, no doubt, be had.
Post match, a special mention to birthday boy Kenny Brown, for being beautiful…and to Vinny, awarded man of the match by their coach, and polishing off his winners pint for a double victory for Hills.
Post-post match there were some car-park hijinx seeing Keithy’s misdemeanours punished with a fineage game of Higher or lower, the boys fine pot expanded, coach agrees he got off lightly, poor Kenny on the other hand, was far from amused with his fine, but Fanny McC got the cash out of him, then out came the gaffer tape…
Hazzy and Longwell just can’t get enough of each other, and to save them having to fight for a seat next to each other on the bus they were taped together, which lead to some distressing sights at the pee-stops…Gus, who has managed to drag his birthday out for the entire month, was lulled into a false sense of security on the backs bus, where he was made to down half a low-sugar bacardi breezer and a shot of tropical sourz, come pee-stop he was kidnapped by the forwards, Captain Stu taped a can to each hand and Gus was left in the capable hands of the Hills front 8…from there I can’t comment, I haven’t seen him since. Methinks maybe next August will be spent in hiding…
No time for more, fun was had at Lebowski’s, then on to Rosey’s, Newsteam bailed early.
Howe of Fife come to Hughenden on Sat, with a coaches BBQ after, on account of the glorious weather, be there or be square. Later skaters.
To be continued…

The Hillhead/Jordanhill rugby season is far from over as the ladies continue to chase a league/cup double- a first for the Ladies team. They must win their final 2 league fixtures with bonus points to stand a chance at the league, and beat Watsonians on Sunday to progress to the Cup final vs either Wandies or Royal High.
The Hill-Jills ladies have had a great season showing massive improvement and strength of squad despite various absences at various key points in the season…some injured ladies have shown just a little teeny bit of fear that they may never make it back into the squad, I foresee a future in a sub-suit…
For the third week running Hills will face Watsonians on Sunday in the cup semi-finals, a difficult game by all accounts and a hard team to beat away from home with a number of their key players coming onto some end of season form.
So good luck ladies, if anyone fancies a wee jaunt to Edinburgh on Sunday the game is on at Dreghorn Barracks, kicking off at 2pm. The perfect recovery after the club dinner banter on Sunday…see you there

So, it seems an end of season run-down is in order. In all the excitement of general life and rugby newsteam failed miserably to report on the last 3 first XV games. Rest assured we were certainly present, living the rollercoaster of excitement, possibility and eventual heartbreak as the boys missed out on promotion in their final game against Dunfermline.
Having previously seen off Perthshire, 55-5, and played a stressful and highly entertaining fixture against league winners Kirkcaldy, winning 46-43 in the final moments, the possibility of promotion hung in the balance for the encounter with Dunfermline. Chosen one of the week number one, reflecting through the mists of time…was Stuart Ross. The No7 gets a pretty hard time in contention for the Chosen One award because he is consistently good, and newsteam expects nothing but the best from Fireman Stu. He was pretty nippy displaying a few overtaking manouevres to pass our regular winger, ahem…and was strong in the contact as ever, and showed how very versatile he is shifting out to the wing after the reshuffle due to injuries. He also showed the qualities that made him captain in Cammy’s absence, lifting the spirits of the younger players and keeping some shape and consistency in a very close game. Well done Stuart Ross
Next up Chosen One of the week number 2 goes to Hazzy at hooker who had a good game in the loose, and scrummaged well.
Given that it was such a long time ago, and that I get a bit confused in all the excitement I may have mixed those two games up…but Chosen One’s stand anyway. Well done boys.
Finally, last Chosen One for the boys this season goes to Ally J who had a good game against Dunfermline despite breaking his nose in the first minute and losing what looked like considerable (in the bleeding nose stakes) blood loss, almost the entirety of which was lost over the first-aider, lucky she was wearing waterproofs…after the drama of trying to stop the blood Ally went back on and played very well on the wing, working well with aggressive defence and showing a desire to win and belief in his teammates that kept the team afloat in the final minutes as some heads began to drop. He set up the final try, rousing the team for the final offensive. It was too late unfortunately and Dunfermline ran out winners, but well done Ally.
The boys, and massive home crowd, were understandably upset and disappointed but the boys should be commmended on a good solid season, Coachoftheyearchiefkeith and side-kick Grant have a great base to build on for a successful 2009/10 season.
Well done to everyone who’s been involved in the first XV this season.

The 2nd XV fared considerably better and wrapped up a league win and promotion a few games before the end of the season, still managing to close out games after being crowned league champions. The 2’s have some real talent on show and undoubtedly a few of Cahoon and Gareth’s boys will be involved in the first XV next year, there’ll be some hard decisions in the squads next season. I haven’t seen many of their games this season but they looked on form against GHA last week. Special mention to Lois Legendre for a great rate of turnover ball in the lineout, Donald Pitkethly for some brutal tackling and strong running, to Scott and Hadden for some rapid pace on the wings and to Ally W for some good strong running in the centre.
Well done to all the 2nd XV squad, to silver bullet Cahoon and to Gareth.

In case you’re not an active part of the Hughenden rumour mill- in which case you’re missing out- and haven’t heard the latest, first XV head coach Keith Robertson has been named Coach of the Year for our area. His talent and efforts have been recognised and he has now reached the dizzy heights of…G-list celebrity? Well, suitably far up the alphabet to gain some reognition and have at least a wee bit of diva potential, so keep a look out for our new local celeb around the club, and buy him a congratulations drink

Well done Keith, well deserved.
Rumour has it Heat and OK are in a bidding war for rights to cover Mr Robertson’s appearances at pre-season where he will mainly be wearing a variety of classic sporting outfits and working the sadist/schadenfreude look, which will give way to the traditional Keithangryface as we move into the autumn/winter season.
Newsteam thought it might be appropriate to address Coachoftheyearkeith by his proper title, but it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so any ideas for a suitable moniker would be appreciated…King Keith, Mr Incredible, Sir, M’Lord, Chief…