Thank you first of all for this match report from Club Captain Duncan Ayers, and thank you also to Club Photographer Simon Watson for his pics - please click on the link here to see various.

A regrouped 3s side (returning injured Laurence, Hunt, Miller, Sleightholme and red card Watson) were able to come together to put out a 19 strong unit against the Groningen Socials. The 3s new tactic of rapid medical cover on the pitch saw Doc James dust off his boots to prop. We were set for 60 mins of grass roots fun rugby! The score didn't and doesn’t really matter as this was about pure enjoyment of the game. The age range for the Holt was 45 years between oldest and youngest and this was an opportunity for new players to try out some new positions and experiment.

The Holt side started strong and, for a social side, Groningen were a big lot of lads; we hoped the beer consumed in the run up to the game would slow them down a bit!

Maurice Gedney was a verbal pack leader and gave a cohesion to the pack so crash balls and defensive tackling was strong, plus his skill in the air meant line outs were back to form. The game was a real battle and big tackles and counter rucking saw possession change regularly, Groningen's steam roller runners taking everything to bring down. Holt opened the scoring after a mercurial kick into the 22 from new player Acres with Will Barker chasing to pop the ball up and through hands to score. From here it was end to end stuff with some outstanding defence. Joe Miller on his maiden game for Holt played 15 and was a solid last line of defence, taking catches and running deep back into play. Scores from Nick Burnsmate x 3 Sam Wright, Tom “red mist” Watson and Ben Lawrence added to the Holt tally while Groningen scored two great tries powering through with great offloads. Dave Jones’s Magic bag of special moves came up with a special line out that saw him plough down the field before unleashing Barker. Great runs from the backs including Wallace in the centers, a returned Ben Laurence and the Gedney Cousins. Archie Gibbs was held up over line but did all the work to get there, Alec Keeble almost was in to score but a large piece of grass brought him down short.

At 50 mins rugby was the winner and the teams mixed up positions and then brought on all subs for a 5 minute fun time. The game ended and everyone was happy, when the outcome of the game had nothing at stake except pure enjoyment.

The teams went on to have an enjoyable after match time and early reports have members of the 3rd team still standing when the clock struck 12.

Summed up in the clubhouse after the game - This was strong grass roots rugby - played anywhere in the world is good. Groningen certainly have a great set of players and we hope this is building to a strong relationship between clubs.