Session 4, won for the second week running by a team skippered by Will O’Donnell, was attended by 49 players, – a good turn out considering an estimated 20 players were treading the boards in simultaneous hit musicals. The sun was in but it was very warm with a welcome slight breeze. Â Sides captained by Will, Abby Scott, Claudia Cartmell, Lewis Thompson, Matty Kerrison and Matty Atkinson were down to (mostly) eight a side but this gave a bit more space and 127 tries were scored. Â Will’s team were well organised and applied the basics to the letter. Will’s sister Catherine, a prop in real life but here located on the left wing, was top individual on the night scoring ten of 25 tries and benefiting most from the team’s deadly accurate right to left ball movement. The team only dropped one point on their way to victory, this was in a 5-5 draw in their first match against Claudia’s team. Claudia’s team remained unbeaten, were joint top scorers with the second best margin (+6) and registered the evening’s biggest match winning score (10-4), Â but with four draws only finished third on the night. Abby’s team were runners-up and played well but not well enough in the final match against Will’s team where a win by more than a two try margin would have secured the title.
Session 2
The sky above Skiddaw and to the south was black and thundery but no body cared. There was a lot of celebrating going on, half concerned with the end of exams and some with England’s soccer success in the World Cup. The former seemed more of a drain on attendance but additionally some absentees, – students mostly, are abroad on holiday. Still, sixty two players attended session two of this summer’s touch rugby programme. This was only a marginal increase on last week’s attendance and meant that the preferred six team format could be adopted. Teams were captained by Peter Weightman, Dean Robinson, Dominic Westle, Paul Ireland, Matthew Atkinson and Richard Sykes.
There was a lot of good play particularly from those sides which were well stocked with players who can motor a bit. Where those sides also contained rookies from the aged 5-10 bracket, who have a dispensation to run beyond the first, and sometimes second, touch there is real potential for damage. The team selection process which seeks to equalize the distribution of talent only achieves this to an extent and teams with the best chance of tournament success usually reveal their potential in the first round. This was the case at session two with Paul’s team and Dean’s team recording respective  3-1 and 4-3 wins over Peter’s team and Matty’s team. Their edges were related to critical speed of thought and execution in midfield areas where the best playmaking takes place and is the origin of moves mostly finished in the corners. Dean and Paul’s team kept winning; that was until the penultimate round when an inspired performance by Matty’s team (composed mostly by his mates) produced their best performance of the night to draw (5-5) with Paul’s team.  A rare quirk of the matrix meant that Paul and Dean had to play each other in the last round to decide the round robin.
The decider was a wonderful match, as semi serious as Summer Touch ever gets, played at top speed, and was as close as the 5-5 scoreline suggests. For Paul’s team Eve Jenkinson made the game’s first break which started a bit of midfield chess dominated by younger players developing the skills and awareness to make the hard yards and keep the ball alive. Wider out for Paul’s team Karen Roberts and Stephen Hindmarch crafted telling angles with deft offloads and switches executed at top speed. In opposition Jacob Tonkin, Dean himself and Alvin Tsoi remained up-tempo but patient, and never wasted an opportunity to release their ever elusive youngsters William Atkinson, Seb Sanderson and Oliver Anderton. Scoring was alternate and at half time Dean’s team led 3-2.
Defences dominated in the closing stages but five more tries were scored, the best two for Dean’s team created by Catherine O’Donnell and finished by Siobhan Lamb.
The sky above Skiddaw didn’t move all night but it didn’t rain. Everyone left in a rush in case it did and missed the confirmation that  because of Wednesday’s Memorial Service to be held at Crosthwaite Church, next week’s Summer Touch is on Thursday evening.