Schedule & Results
The Hourglass
Travel Directions
Barbados Tour
Roster
Grey Gear
Photo Gallery
Club History
Rugby Links
CONNECTICUT GREY
RUGBY FOOTBALL CLUB
~ est. 1979 ~
Wallingford, Connecticut
The Hourglass
December 11, 2005
A Publication of the Connecticut Grey Rugby Football Club
Click Here for Back Issues of The Hourglass
2005 ANNUAL AWARDS
The time has come to cast your votes for those who took their game and their support of the Grey to the highest levels during the 2005 spring and fall playing seasons. Cast your mind back to a rain swept Randalls Island in early April and work your way forward through a year that featured the reemergence of the Boston Brahmins (with the home team winning both contests); some well-earned lumps against a strong Weston-Super-Mare touring side; a nail biter against Amoskeag at the 2nd Last Old Men of the Mountain Festival; a gut-wrenching draw on Block Island; the 1st Annual Ruckin’ Regatta; and home-and-away wins against perennial rival Berkshire.
Send Dean <mailto:[email protected]> your votes for:
MVP Forwards
MVP Backs
Rugger Hugger
John Falatyn ‘Freight Train’ Award
Founders’ Award
Voting is open to all current (dues paying) playing and social members. A reminder that the Freight Train Award goes to the individual whose performance – both on and off the pitch – best represents the hard-charging competitive spirit and love of the brotherhood of rugby that was so amply exemplified by John Falatyn. Recent recipients include George Saul, Mike “High Voice” Kosilla, Freddy Seeger, Bob Casey, Mike Guzzio (TWICE!), and Louie Casciaro. The Founders’ Award is presented on behalf of the founding members of the Grey to the club member whose year-in and year-out dedication to the club has fostered its present strength and helped to insure its continued success. Recent recipients include Ed Carr, Tony Johnson, Guz, “Thurston” Jorgensen, Jimmy Facey, Tom Flynn, and Larry Larocque.
Please cast your votes by January 8 to allow us plenty of time to have the awards engraved in time for the…2005 ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET
Reserve the night of Saturday, February 4 for our annual dinner dance and presentation of official and not-so-official awards for the season just past. Stay tuned for details.ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
Also, a reminder that the club will convene its Annual General Meeting on Sunday, January 8 at 1:00 o’clock at the home of Tom and Lindsey Flynn, 236 South Elm Street, Wallingford. We will elect next years’ club officers and then participate in a panel discussion on Constitutional Law and Roberts’ Rules of Order. You won’t want to miss it. Please let President Flynn <mailto:[email protected]> know if you will be attending so we can be sure to have enough refreshments and folding chairs on hand.SPECIAL OLYMPICS
More dates to save. The Special Olympics Connecticut Winter Games Cross-Country Skiing Competition will be held the weekend of 4-5 March at the CL&P Area Work Center on Hopmeadow Road in Simsbury (the usual location). If you have received your volunteer registration form in the mail and want to send it back in, make sure to check off the 100 Meter event and list “Connecticut Grey Rugby Club” as the corporation you are representing. Also, let Tony Johnson <mailto:[email protected]> know what day or days you’ve signed up for. If you don’t receive a registration form or if you’ve never participated in this great Grey tradition, contact Tony.IRELAND TOUR – 7-15 APRIL
And just a quick note to confirm that the organizing committee is pinning down the final details – kit, giveaways, side trips, etc. – for our weeklong trip to the Auld Sod. Both the Perennials and Clontarf have confirmed our fixtures. With 34 players plus 32 supporters signed up, it promises to be a memorable trip.HE’LL TAKE UP GOLF WHEN HE QUITS RUGBY
Amateur becomes oldest rugby player in world – 90 year old, Sadayoshi Morita has become the oldest rugby player in the world. Morita has been in training for rugby matches at least three times a week for the past 70 years. The Japanese man, who turned 90 early in November, was recognized by the Senior World Rugby Championship as the world’s oldest practicing rugby player. The 90-year-old Japanese man, originally from the southern island of Kyushu, has been playing rugby for most of his life, barring the three years he was conscripted by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War Two. He hopes to play for sometime longer, but admits it’s not getting any easier. He said, “It is extraordinarily tough for a 90-year old guy to run at top speed. But you must get over it to enjoy playing rugby. If it weren’t for the sprints in this game, I would be able to play rugby until I was 110 years old.”
Morita still walks for over two hours at a time, four times a week, to tone his muscles. Morita discovered rugby at the age of 19 at a local match in Fukuoka prefecture. Fascinated by the sport, which was then still very new in Japan in 1934, he joined the rugby team of his university. Morita played for his company’s rugby team after that and lead the Yahata Steel team to three straight championships in Japan’s Industrial League from 1950 to 1952. At 39, he retired from the team but could not abandon the game for long and joined a league for over 40s. At the age of 80, he returned to the rugby field even after falling out of a tree – an accident that left him wheelchair-bound for three months. Morita, clad in the Japanese National Rugby uniform, told Reuters on the sideline of a Senior Championship tournament in his hometown of Fukuoka, “The secret is to play a lot of sports and eat a lot. That is the secret of my fine playing.” Morita has no plan to quit his favorite sport until he is at least 95 years old. Then, he says, he will concentrate on his second most favorite sport, golf – because that does not require him to run at full speed all the time.
Video links to the story below (requires RealPlayer)
<http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/clips/ebrief/11292005-10.ram>
<http://media.ntdtv.com/ebrief/11292005-10.rm>