Sunday 10th October 2004

The Under 11s had their most successful Maidenhead Tournament for some years and came away clutching silverware - though not the winners' trophies on this occasion.

Pride of place goes to the B squad, who came through the day undefeated despite two withdrawals through illness and a no-show. Fortunately a few players had come down in their kit to support and filled in admirably! The squad finished runners up to an almost suspiciously talented Marlow side, but only after total number of tries scored had been calculated. The squad did very well to hold Marlow to a scoreless draw, and there were sharp intakes of breath as breaks from Dhruv Surya, Shiv Khindria, Max O'Connor and Steven Carn threatened to break the deadlock. Pleasingly, as another indication of the closeness of the two squads, Marlow and Maidenhead shared the Fair Play trophy and so the Bs added this honour to their runners up medals.

Along the way tries from George Thomas and Josh Spooner saw off Haslemere; George Thomas again provided the winning margin over Buckingham; and Sam Scott's high speed break put Winchester away.

In the A pool we witnessed the closest fought competition the coaches have yet seen in any tournament. Whilst Haslemere were unlucky in having a few no shows and perhaps suffering accordingly, all 4 remaining clubs (Cleve failed to turn up!) proved very closely matched, with all matches between them being settled by very low margins.

Maids started strongly against Haslemere; they went one up in the first half with a try from Josh Edney; and settled things in fine fashion with a try from Michael Stacey for the forwards and Leo Smith for the backs with a finely executed move (which the players sorted out for themselves - though obviously it is all due to their inspirational coaches!).

Next up came Buckingham, where Maids looked as if they might be out-muscled, but two strikes against the head from Huw Kmiot and the front row maintained pressure, and the side ultimately benefited from this as Michael Stacey charged down a kick and LD Basson streaked in to claim a try.

2 out of 2 and things were looking promising, but, alas, our Henley 'bogey' returned to haunt us: a lapse of concentration in the first half allowed Henley to score after a goal line wrestling match; Maids came straight back with a penalty try after an illegal tackle on Chris Dow ended his long break just short of the line. Henley came back again, however, and the match ended in a 1 - 2 defeat. The reaction of the players showed just how committed they are, and was also, perhaps, a reflection of the fact that this was the first serious game they had lost since London Irish in March.

Still all was to play for: each of the contenders had lost a game. In the end, however, one brief period of lacklustre defence allowed Winchester to sneak a first half try and despite every effort Maids could not break through to even things up.

Some compensation came in the award of the Fair play trophy and the bittersweet reflection that we had beaten the eventual winners Buckingham earlier in the day.

All coaches were both pleased and proud of the way both squads played and behaved - the latter evidenced in the receipt of the Fair Play awards. There is plenty to work on, but we have great foundations on which to build!