Gumba and Pišta celebrate their birthdays with a benefit match at Iuridica

Gumba’s 50th birthday celebrations, which had already begun at the winter training camp in January, peaked with OBP’s benefit match against ARC Iuridica on 23.5.2026. Another OBP member, Pišta, also celebrated his 65th birthday there. The birthday boys picked a really beautiful sunny Saturday with summer weather for their benefit, and practically everyone who had turned up on the pitch at any point during the year came to the match.

Kick-off was set for 15:00, and the match was played in two halves of 20 minutes. In the first half Old Boys Praha managed to get into the opposition 22, the half-backs and three-quarters combined well, and the ball sometimes even reached the wings. Each time, though, the final pass or a forward pass stopped us from scoring. Still, we did manage to score twice in the end – once when the ball finally made it all the way to the wing, and once through a back-row break through the opposition defence. Before half-time, however, the opposition levelled with two breaks of their own through our defence. The second half carried on in the same vein: there weren’t many clean tackles any more, but there were more and more individual breaks, which both teams converted in turn as the lead swung back and forth. Towards the end the birthday boy Gumba also came on for OBP; he could have scored several times but always unselfishly passed to better-placed teammates. The last try came after just such a Gumba break close to the try line and a move out to the wing, which closed out the match. In the end the referee did not announce the score, so everyone won – above all the birthday boys.

The third half began straight after the match. The birthday boys had laid on a really fine spread: a top-notch goulash, cooked the day before and bearing the unmistakable signature of chilli lovers, and a grill with steaks, sausages and other non-vegetarian treats. Throughout the afternoon the birthday boys also received congratulations from everyone who came. On show were the traditional rugby figurines from Old Boys Praha and, besides the liquid gifts, other works of art too. The rest of the evening was given over to very lively debates about the match, in which the team’s new foreign reinforcements had been especially busy, and to group singing in which absolutely everyone joined. In the end the birthday boy Gumba reaped the rewards of several years’ work trying to get Jiří Šlitr’s song Tři tety into the OBP repertoire. He could certainly be satisfied that evening, as he got to sing it several times, accompanied by everyone present. The debates and singing went on well past midnight, and at around three in the morning the benefit came to an orderly end.

Old Boys Praha would like to thank the birthday boys Gumba and Pišta for a superbly organised event, great hospitality and the third half. Thanks also to our opponents for a hard, fair game and a friendly third half – see you again at Iuridica some time.