Eighteen tons of not so rippled muscle took to the rugby field on Sunday to contest the annual Crawley RFC Fat Boy Sevens Trophy
in aid of the children’s charity CHASE. The event is open to all but aimed at the older, more portly athlete. All players take to the scales before playing and points are awarded for and against every kilogramme 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 which entered found that being in their teens and only about 65kg each made a win against the older Fat Boys almost impossible when starting most games 55-0 down due to the handicap. The young Crawley 118 118 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 lost 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, so it was sad to see that many players still struggled to catch a ball that was two feet long. The Jug was won by Fatscray after they narrowly beat the FD Tigers and Arun became winners of this year’s Plate.
The tournament winners were a team aptly named The 345s as they consisted of only front row and second row forwards. Their opponents The Seven Stadlens 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.