Contrary to recent precedent, the third team shamelessly turned up with a change of kit for their Division Five match at Gala Wilton on Saturday, 24^th January, 2009.

Totally ignoring the faultless examples set by both of the two other, more senior, sides in the Club, the third team totally ignored the opportunity to utterly disregard the information detailed on every club fixture list produced this season, brazenly refused to forget to look in the League handbook to check the colour of the kit worn by their opponents and completely failed to disregard the fact that Gala Wilton have worn yellow for as long as anyone can remember and turned up with the club’s grey kit to make sure that there wasn’t a clash.

Not surprisingly, the rest of the club now feels sickeningly let down by the third team through its actions in preparing for this match.  The Reserves set the trend and, possibly, a new fashion by opting to turn out on the pitch in exactly the same colour shirts as their hosts when visiting Gala for a Div 2 match last November and gallantly refused to play until the home side agreed to their visitors being allowed exclusive use of their very natty red-and-black hooped, Dennis-the Menace retro tribute shirts for the whole afternoon.  Setting these off against royal blue shorts and socks created an ensemble that was the envy of the Haut-Couture Set throughout Kingsholm as the autumn collections were prepared for possible presentation to the discerning public of the Shed at the Rugby ground.

Just a month later, the First team proved that the fashion statement provided by the reserves was no mere fluke and that channels of communication were honed to perfection within the club as they also turned up at Gala with their first choice kit for a Northern Senior League match just before Christmas.  Not wanting to completely steal the Reserve team’s thunder, the first’s eschewed the red and black, off the shoulder numbers previously worn by The Stiffs and opted, instead, for a Grey / blue concoction with some dodgy advertising and a segue of colour between the shades of azure that set the imagination racing as the side lost 2-1.

But now, this hard won and painstakingly forged reputation, of being a club that is prepared to take risks with its appearance and cock a snoot at the critics as it brashly establishes its own identity through a cornucopia of sharply contrasting styles and colours, has been sacrificed by the third team, which donned an entirely different strip to that worn by its opponents from the off and, as a consequence, encouraged hardly anyone to look at them in amazement at all.  OK, so no one pointed and laughed either, but that just isn’t the point – is it??