My Life as a Hooker

In my late thirties, it gradually dawned on me that I had become Jason s regular hooker. It was an arrangement that worked well for a couple of reasons. He didn t need me to dress up in anything particularly risqu or to do anything too vulgar, other than cuddle in the middle of a field with him and fourteen other men on a Saturday afternoon. Steven Gauge s response to an impending midlife crisis didn t involve piercings, tattoos or a red sports car instead, he decided to take up rugby. What he found on the pitch was a wonderful game, far removed from the professional televised glamour of international rugby, where ordinary blokes with ordinary jobs (and some extraordinary bellies) get together once in a while and have a great time rolling around in the mud. By the end of his first few seasons, Steven had cracked his nose and various other parts of his anatomy but he had cracked the game too, and found a place in the club as Captain of the Fourths.