6^th Crawley FatBoy Sevens 2009

Sunday 3rd May saw around 18 tons of not so well rippled muscle take to the field to contest the coveted Crawley FatBoy Sevens Rugby Trophy in aid of the charity CHASE.

This annual rugby event, whilst being open to all, is aimed at the older more portly athlete.

All players take to the scales before playing and points are awarded for and against every kilo they are above or below 102 and for every year they are above or below 35. All under age and underweight players are required to wear fancy dress.

Some of the more seasoned “light-weights” were using cash bribes to buy themselves some extra kilos during the weigh-in.

The younger sides that entered found that being in their teens and only about 65 kilo each made a win against the older FatBoys almost impossible when starting most games 55-0 down due to the handicap.  

The young Crawley “118118” side carried out some pre event fund raising and used the cash to bribe the judge in order to reduce their handicap, which helped them through to the Trophy Semi-final. They losed this when a period of extra time failed to decide a winner and a foot race was ordered between the largest players from each side.

Most games on the main pitch were played with a giant size rugby ball, it was sad to see that many players still struggled to catch a ball that was two feet long.

The Jug final was won by Fatscray after they narrowly beat the FD Tigers and Arun became winners of this years Plate.

The Tournament winners were a team aptly named The 345’s as they consisted of only front row and second row forwards. Their opponents “The Seven Stadlen’s” parted with a large amount of cash to level the starting scores of the final, but to no avail and they had to settle for second place.

The Most Valuable Player this year was local businessman Gary Larkin whose company “Porkies Wholesale Caterers” donate most of the food for the event.

Many thanks again go out to the referee’s, the medical staff, those that helped behind the scenes and to everyone that donated raffle prizes.

Thanks to the generosity of everyone involved we will be handing a cheque over to CHASE (Children’s Hospice Association) in the region of  £3000, not a bad effort for a load of old fat fella’s running around a field making fools of themselves.

View the details of the charity at www.chasecare.org.uk

The Trophies this year were sponsored by the CRFC Youth Section.

This years Hog roast was sponsored by  “BenchMark Reprographics” and their Associate.