Well, our last home match saw a case of premature jubilation as we took an early lead against high flying Rosslyn Park, only for gravity to take over and we swiftly came back to earth! But not to worry, we were back to winning ways as the lads travelled to the Arctic Circle and beat Darlington.

I gather much fun was had by all! What a 'Posh' coach, Kelvin was spoilt with all the catering facilities, he didn't know where to turn next. I noted that Dings are only the warm up act for Bananarama, Human League, and Tony Hadley who follow later in the year. Well done to all who made the long trip and gave their support in the hugely impressive stadium. I trust all who went were able and capable of enjoying the architectural delights of Newcastle, Leeds and Darlington. Why I man! I am sure they still managed to see the planets aligned in the night sky, or what they thought were the planets!

This weekend was a truly good one for the Club all round. Our U15 lads giving Clifton a thrashing, U16's winning the Combination Plate Semi Final, wins for the Knights and Warriors and last but by no means least both our U16 and U18 girls winning their respective National Cup quarter finals at Havant. Huge congratulations to them all and especially to all the coaches and those who give up so much time for the benefit of others. We wish the girls well in their semi-finals.

I took the opportunity to watch the Warriors in a very exiting win against OB's seconds, full of effort, some really good open rugby and some promising performances from our youngsters (and of course, the not so young) showing the club is on a sound basis. We did have to check with the excellent referee as to the actual final score as we had lost count!

Great news too that the Colts are reforming in partnership with Yate RFC, as the 'Saxons'.
On the subject 'Pathways', I read a very interesting article in the Guardian, comparing the routes of two England colleagues on their route to the National Team, Jamie George and Bristol's finest Ellis Genge. Jamie started his rugby career at Public School, Haileybury College. Ellis at local state school, John Cabot. Public schools continue to provide much rugby, whilst state schools manage very little. And that is where Dings and clubs like us provide training, coaching and opportunity to lads and lasses showing an interest in the game. But of course adequate funding remains an issue.

In a later issue of the same newspaper we learned the RFU made a loss of £43 million, however this was to be addressed by the staging of an extra International at Twickenham, how disappointing!

The 6 Nations recommence today, why do we need soloists to lead us in the singing of National Anthems, surely enough of us know the words? And whilst on the subject of internationals, how very sad to hear booing of the Scottish goalkicker, I thought that was the preserve of soccer.

On a brighter note, BBC local news featured the story of Glenn, a Burnham on Sea RFC member whose house was badly damaged by fire, and he was not fully insured. His fellow club mates rallied round and helped him out, real rugby values.

I mentioned in a previous Oracle that Sol was playing for Tonga in a Sevens tournament in South Africa. Well he is joined on the international front by Elias Granath, selected to represent Sweden, well done to them both.
If you feel you aren't keeping up to date with all that's happening at the mighty Dings, can I recommend that you follow the excellent Tuesday and Thursday News on our 'Facebook' page, it's really enlightening.

What a turn out for our Old Farts reunion dinner, well done Flash, a triumph. Some confusion though. The encouragement to wear our Dings shirts was worrying. Was it our dress shirts or our old playing shirts? If the latter there was a worry that we might have to pay £1 – 15 shillings for not having handed them back in!

Today we welcome our old friends Esher, like us at the wrong end of the league. They pipped us up in Greater London earlier so today will not be easy. It was good to see John Inverdale at that game, we remember John well from his hosting BBC's Rugby Special at Stade Lockleaze some years ago, somewhat different surroundings from today!
So Come on you Dings, shove 'em up the M32.