As the season closes it's time to look back at those extra special moments that make Saturday that bit more entertaining... 

 We all remember the most joyous points in time. Johnny knocking over the winning drop goal, Geoff Hurst's hat trick, that bit in Basic Instinct, and finally finding the Chris Waddle commemorative coin. Let's relive Oaks' moments of glory.

The Award for Making Charge Downs Look Easy - Bully. Like Bugs Bunny playing baseball he appeared to be all over the pitch and none more so when charging down kicks. The best of which being in the opening game when he caught the ball and ran in from half way.

The Award for Proving Second Rows Aren't Donkeys - Kev vs Wetherby Although not many people will remember this, the awards committee were particular fond of it. Combining driving runs with slinky give and goes off the No. 10, Kev's only failing was twice diving short of the Niagara markings.

The Best Example of Making an Opponent Look Stupid - Chris Edwards vs Halifax The thing with Halifax is, they had two wingers who were like greased lightning, unfortunately they couldn't catch for toffee. It was no surprise that when they did get hold of the ball the inevitably made it into the Oaks goal area. However, on one occasion the winger decided to showboat when grounding the ball was easier and was subsequently tackled and relieved of the ball. Result.

The Most Outrageous Turn Around -TWJ vs Pontefract It became customary on a Saturday to get a call from Tom Watcyn-Jones telling us he was A)hung over or B)still drunk. However it was in this game he had just finished drinking in Spearmint Rhinos (a nature club of some sort) when he made it to the game. Miraculously he put in a man of the match performance. Unfortunately he can't remember any of it.

Dream Can Come True - Chats vs Wetherby It's every little boys dream, you're sitting at Wembley when all of a sudden there is an announcement. The team is a player short does anybody want a game. This happened to Oaks No.1 fan at Wetherby. Chats had gone up for a caravaning weekend but when the call came he rose to the occasion and helped Oaks to victory. If only the opponents knew.

Every rose has it's thorn like every day has it's dawn. For every yin there is a yang. The pleasure and pain theory played out at Oaks this year. Here is a selection of the most ridiculous moments.

Easier to Score than to Miss - Rusty vs Ossett One person with as good a reputation as TWJ for turning up hungover was Rusty. Early in the season he also volunteered to take kicking duties and had a fantastic chance to open his account with a shot from in front of the posts. Unfortunately for Oaks he managed to hammer it into the top right hand corner under the cross bar. The berk.

I've Literally Got Nothing Else to Wear - Darren vs Dinnington and beyond Claiming he had literally nothing else to wear, Darren had borrowed a lovely pair of knickers from his good lady to wear whilst playing. To the dismay of the whole team he then decided these were his lucky pants and wore them all season before packing off and heading to London, where no doubt such behaviour is welcomed with open arms.

Decision of The Season -Stu at Harrogate. Sidelined for most of the year, Stu took more of a management role. Away at Harrogate on a wet December day he was faced with a choice pitch A or pitch B. A was a lovely National League pitch with brilliant drainage. B was a bog with a dead squirrel in the middle. Knowing Oaks as he does Stu opted for B. Well done son...
Facial Hair Of the Season - Adriano Despite Kev's ever increasing side burns, the award goes to Adie for his Chopper 'tache at Harrogate. This evoked the greeting from Frets, 'Adie what is that? You look a right tw@t!', and in all fairness he did.

 

Worst Day of His Life no1 - Stu at Halifax –  Picture this Australia playing England in the World Cup quarter final, it's your last game before a knee operation. and it's away at Halifax. You plan it out, get up early watch the WC, get on the pitch, win. It's never that simple with Stu. The team who had been then dozens of times before all ended up going in different directions and relied on pure cunning to turn up, Australia lose to England, at this point Stu breaks his ribs, he receives a torrent of abuse from the Halifax fans, he hurts too much respond, and to top it off Oaks get battered. Never mind it could be worse....

Worst Day of His Life no2 - Bonzo at Wetherby I think enough has been said about Bonzo at Wetherby on this site. All we can add is that it was nice to see him recreate this moment in his retirement match against Rishworthians, setting up another try with a failed kick. Hopefully he'll have better luck on his new bike.

Pitch Markings - Life is glamorous in Yorkshire 5. After the summer floods put Myers Grove out of action Oaks once again adopted Niagara for the early part of the season. Unfortunately the pitch was marked in red with a football pitch also on it in white. This caused all sorts of trouble as playing incessantly aimed for the whit line which was two metres short of the try line. However this paled into insignificance when playing at Myer Grove at the end of the season, with no pitch markings a serious amount of imagination was needed. If only there was someone, say, who worked at the school to warn us....