The Rats developed in the late 1980s as a social side, a mixture of non-trainers, veterans and students, taking on the lower combination sides. With a tradition of touring (well, a big piss up in Berlin every year), the Rats over time became a pure veterans side, the last resting place of many ex-Clifton or Bristol first-team players. In the late 1990s, early 2000s, the Rats became a team feared by most other Vets sides, and many a Combination first and second team, and very rarely lost.

Now we're all nearly 50 or over 50, things are a little harder. We started to lose games each September because the opposition had been cheating (pre-season training). We started to lose some Vets games because the opposition there cheated too (using players who were barely over 35).

We are no longer Rebels Against Time and Senility. Time and senility, like our opponents, are beginning to win. But what the hell. We've played in Berlin, Ottowa, Toronto, Boston, Cape Cod, Vancouver, Victoria island, San Francisco, Monterrey, Cape Town, Constantia, Jersey, Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria Falls, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Perth, Sydney, Cairns, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Vina del Mar, Valparaiso, Prague, Dublin, Havana, Venice, Malmo and Copenhagen.

On our travels we\'ve also won the World Vets tournament, played the Pumas vets, escaped from Alcatraz and Robben Island, gone on safari in the Zimbabwe bush, skied the Rockies and the Andes, scuba dived the Barrier Reef, climbed the Sydney Harbour bridge, joined the Hong Kong Sports Club, enjoyed caviar and champagne at the Bolshoi, Singapore Slings in Raffles, fine wines in Sonoma and Stellenbosch, gambled in Vegas, danced tango in Buenos Aires, rolled cigars in Cuba, played beach volleyball on Copacabana, surfed on Bondi, been arrested for kissing immigration officials on the River Plate, and white-water rafted the Zambezi.

Oh, and we went to Wales once but we didn't like it much because they charged us to get over the bridge and we couldn\'t find the Irish bar.

Editors note - articles have been received from various sources and often of unknown date.

1) If you are a former RAT and have some info to post please email to editor@cliftonrugby.co.uk

2) Readers please read the articles in the spirit they were written their views do not necessarily represent the view of Clifton Rugby club if you have any questions please email to editor@cliftonrugby.co.uk