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A team of rugby veterans poignantly paid tribute to their fallen friend last weekend as they stepped out onto the pitch to compete in a regional tournament.
The Bahrain Golden Oldies team, made up of mostly middle-aged expat businessmen and retirees living on the island, who regularly train together and journey around the Gulf to represent the kingdom, held a minute’s silence for Bruce Venter before their first fixture in the Bahrain Rugby Midday 10s tournament.
Bahrain Rugby Football Club chairman Mike Cunningham said: “Bruce was a longstanding and respected member of the club and a former Golden Oldies player. We were deeply saddened to learn of his passing away in the US last week, so it felt right to have a small tribute to him.”
The annual 10s tournament has been a staple of the rugby club’s calendar for 16 years, although it has gone through numerous iterations. It started out as the Midnight 10s, but was changed when players were uncomfortable waiting in cold, damp conditions for their next game. It is now held at midday to get the best of the February weather and to allow more fans to come down and watch.
This year, four teams of 10 players in each side competed in a round-robin format, playing each other twice for a total of six games lasting 10 minutes each. The squads were Bahrain Golden Oldies, Muscat, Riyadh and Al Khobar.
This was the Golden Oldies’ first significant tournament since they claimed the Gulf Veterans Bowl with a stunning performance at the Dubai Sevens recently, as featured in GulfWeekly, but unfortunately fell short this time.
Bahrain rallied valiantly, but ultimately came third after wins against Muscat (twice), a draw against Al Khobar and agonisingly losing their other three games by a margin of a couple of points each, including a last-gasp try from Riyadh.
Khobar and Riyadh finished on equal points at the top, and so shared the spoils.
Bahrain’s captain Andrew Walsh was proud of his team and the performance. He explained: “The games were very competitive right until the end. Unfortunately in 10s, with it being such a tight game, it’s often one break, one try or even just a conversion which decides the outcome.
“The minute’s silence for Bruce was absolutely something we had to do, as just a few years ago he was playing with us in the same tournament. It’s a huge loss and very sad for every member of the Golden Oldies who played with him, but he would have been proud of the effort we put into our game.
“I’d also like to thank our coach Jim Rowark who displays an incredible amount of patience to put up with us. To go from coaching the Hong Kong national side and the Bahrain first team to trying to work with a bunch of old guys like us takes a certain type of dedication!”
The Golden Oldies train twice-a-week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, and regularly compete against visiting navy teams and other veteran squads around the region. Nominally, players have to be aged 35 or above.
