I don’t think the French have a word for Cul De Sac, you see
A blog from our MD Steve Hodges, penned on the return journey from his rugby tour this weekend. Over to you Steve…
We all know that “what goes on tour, stays on tour”, it is just one of life’s fundaments. Not a belief or a philosophical view point, just a fact. And has always been that way, so a blog, about a tour, in itself is improper. However having toured to France with Dartmouth RFC this weekend, having said I would never tour again I felt I might get away with a few well-chosen words about a couple of very selective and highly edited stories.
When one of my senior engineers, Andrew “Tommo” Tomkinson, suggested that Astro sponsor the team shirts for the trip, I could not refuse. Astro is a company made up of highly technical and commercially capable people but also most of us have a keen interest in all things sporting or competitive but most importantly with Andrew having given so much to the company over the last 15 years I felt it was the least we could do. I have to admit however, when I also got an invite to join the trip, I wasn’t sure if this to ensure a positive response to the request for sponsorship of because he just wanted me to join it. I am still hoping it is the latter!
There have many many great moment of the tour with times of raucous laughter and much banter and abuse just like Rugby should be. One of the highlights for me was a moment following a journey on the coach heading to the game and a man only to be known as Taff, recounted his journey home from the bar the night before giving a detail explanation of how the made mistake after mistake taking him into a dead end and him needing to return to where he started and go again. That evening in the bar we found him talking to the staff recounting his adventure again, when he returned to the boys to explain that the root of his problems was that “the French don’t see to have a word for cul de sac”
You can imagine my dismay when the next afternoon, he became our tour guide in the city of Brest sent off as the forward party to find a Irish bar. At one point I was with an English Rugby Team, in a French City, being led by a Welsh tour guide looking for an Irish pub. You couldn’t make it up!
The game was an odd affair with the French lower leagues not allowing tackling above the waste, no push in the scrum more than one meter and no charging into the ruck. This resulted in a sight I have never witnessed before, with yellow cards being used in a touring match.
A forty odd point’s defeat was a shame but didn’t dampen the spirits and we continued with our weekend. More beers, more fines, more forfeits and yet more beers, a few songs and few Unexplainable Drinking Incidents (UDI’s).
Dartmouth rugby club have a fantastic tradition of taking a giant panda teddy, dressed in kit, on tour and she must be looked after by one team member for the day. “Tallulah” has been touring for over 20 years and I imagine has seen some amazing sights. She is a treasured member of the touring team and this year in the City of Brest she even managed a cameo appearance at a wedding getting her photo taken on the steps of the Marie between the bride and groom!!
One things that I found fascinating this weekend with my keen interest in human behaviour is how people can overcome the language barriers through the use of creative communication. From gesticulating to acting out phrases, shouting to drawing pictures a team of non-french speakers managed to bumble our way through 72 hours in a place with surprisingly few English speakers with a relatively high level of success. We got around the place, we ate, we drank and we all made it home OK with surprisingly little frustration. Even on occasions some of the guys having to rely on locals to drive some people back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning when the one Morlaix taxi was otherwise engage.
My favourite of all the communication solutions was watching the teams token “northern lad” (Sheffield) speaking into his phone and using a translation app and actually communicating fairly effectively with it. The irony on this situation being that none of the Dartmouth guys can understand him when he is speaking English (Yorkshire) normally – I think that app might be getting some use back home.
I loved my weekend away with the boys and, like all Rugby clubs, after no time at all I felt like one of the gang, accepted as part of the ‘touring team’ even though I had not met any of them before. I hope I get to see them again sometime, form the Morlaix Four, to The Pirate, Taff to Tallulah, they are all top lads and certainly know how to tour. Rugby is an amazing leveller, unlike most other sports the hierarchy is based on experience, capability, seniority and bravery – those wanting to put themselves ‘out there’, lead or just go along with it can do just that – you are just as much at risk of a verbal pasting or a fine, regardless of what you may or may not be in the real world. Farmer, Fisherman or Financier it makes no difference you are just all part of the team and it is a shame that more of life isn’t like that.
I am pleased that Astro was able to contribute is a very small way to the tour effort with the shirts sponsorship and I am even more delighted that Tommo invited me along. Organising a tour of that many people to anywhere is a tall order and Andrew did a sterling job. I met some fantastic people this weekend, had a great laugh and listened to many a hilarious story from tours recent and old. Dartmouth RFC is a great club with some cracking personalities but they also typify everything that is great about Rugby and I wish each of them all the best for next season and all future tours.
