Asena Again, Another Great Tur!

London Cornish RFC once again embarked on another overseas tur, Paris was this year’s destination following Barcelona last year. Organised by the Dukes, attended by all levels across the club, 20ish lads set off from St Pancras looking like an re-enactment of Lord Nelson heading off to Trafalgar in 1805. With Admiralty, cabin boys, ships surgeon and ships reverend to boot. Even a horse! With some of the contingent joining us in Paris the crew that set off were all ready for the voyage with the “supplies” needed. The civilians on our frigate seemed to appreciate the motley crew, I’ve not heard any formal complaints thus far anyway. Needless to say the few ‘tots of rum’ on the voyage paid their toll, as soon as we landed in Paris the fabulous Metro system almost defeated us instantly. Fortunately Sam Steer stepped up and lead the troops forward. Shame he didn’t have the same effect on making sure all the equipment made it. 2 hours in Paris and one bag was already doing circuits around the Metro. Having made it to the crew quarters the team then had a casual night out as there was a keenly fought battle to be had early next day.

Asena Rugby, who had the year before visited us in London, were our hosts. And what hosts they were. 1) Letting us win on the score sheet (even though we lost). 2) Putting on a spread worthy of the Rear Admiralty. 3) Taking our bags in cars into town so we didn’t need to carry them to the Stade Francais match. 4) Taking us to the Stade Francais match. 5) Paying for our tickets to the Stade Francais match. 6) Ensured we got back to where they had parked the cars so we could retrieve the bags. Never has a crew so soundly been treated with utmost respect - a lesson for Cornish with any future visiting teams to London. I’d love to tell you what actually happened in the match but I was busy, successfully, chasing a bag around the Metro system and missed the whole thing. Not quite the 21 ships to Nil sunk at Trafalgar but the score line reflected the match well, 38-24 to the hosts. With the Stade Francais game done, and a fond farewell made to our hosts, we had our usual tur court. The Ships Reverend, Harry ‘My Lord’ Hirst delivered an exceptional court, ‘rewards’ were given out, the reek of garlic followed one or two players around for the evening, virgins were sworn in and further frivolities went on into the night. Including a successful arm wrestling match for Big Kev and an unsuccessful attempt at getting in any clubs for everyone, even with our very smart club blazers on. We were respectable as ever but we concluded they just don’t like fun in Paris and we were having a lot of it. Although Dave playing a ‘supporting role’ to a girls 21st birthday drinks may have been the event that sealed our fate.

Next morning we couldn’t work out if Linard had kept drinking all the way through the night or if he just got up early and started again! Either way we all know how that ended, man overboard. Some pre-prepared ground work on venues for Sunday took us to a popular steak restaurant for rugby teams. Well received the lads enjoyed a welcome lunch which followed with a quick pic of us in front of the Eiffel Tower, a long way in front, about 2 miles to be exact. In fact it could have been Blackpool tower behind us as far as you can tell from the photo. With the cultural part of the tur box ticked, supplies were gathered for the return voyage and we headed home with the same amount of gusto as we had arrived. Tur officially finished back at St Pancras but some not willing to give up their enjoyment trekked on to the Alex for a finale.. Once again the LCRFC International Tur did not disappoint, next year’s venues are already being discussed.

Bev, First Sea Lord.