News from Paul Rutledge from Afghanistan

Dave Martin has sent on this letter from Paul Rutledge - a Ventnor Rugby Club First XV player - who is currently serving with the Army in Afghanistan.  Anyone who wants to reply, write your message to Dave's Ventnor RFC email address (vrfc@tiscali.co.uk).   Dave will bundle them up and send them onto Paul.

Hello All,

Just thought I’d let you all know how I’m getting on in Afghanistan.  I arrived at our forward operational base in Helm three weeks ago.  The weather is extremely hot out here; around 35 degrees C at the moment but it should rise to 50 degrees in the mid-summer.

I’m back from this tour in October and should get quite a few games in.  As I’ve been fairly busy recently, I haven’t heard much about Ventnor’s season so I’ll just have to look forward to next season.

Things are fairly quiet here at the moment and as we only get supplied by chopper once a week, you do get a bit of a sense of being cut off from the outside world.

The camp has all the basics we need and I spend most of my time in the outdoor gym so I shouldn’t be too out of shape next time I put a Ventnor top on.

I often think back to the last Bollene tour and just hope for another, so if you do read this Tony Flower, get organising because I want to be back on a plane to the South of France to give the French another whipping.

I hope everyone is well and I will let you know more about my time out here in more detail when I return.

Take care and I’ll speak to you all soon

Paul