The Under 11s enjoyed a friendly welcome to Winchester (despite the AA website’s best efforts to confuse the head coach and anyone else trying to find the ground! A lesson for next time – there are much better directions on the Winchester site itself!) on Sunday for a triangular fixture against the hosts and a side from Reading. 

‘Match of the Day’ was between the Maids B side and Winchester B. This was a really close fought game where Maids teamwork really showed and all the players worked really hard for each other, supporting in attack and covering for each other in defence – none more so than Sam Scott! 

Tries came from Jonathan Perry, with a run that by now must have started half-way down the Braywick Road; and from Shiv Khindria and Josh Spooner, to clinch a 3 tries to 2 thriller! 

The A side, meanwhile, were yet again too slow to wake up, and leaked 2 first half tries which proved too hard to come back from, despite a fine riposte from LD Basson, and a much stronger 2^nd half performance. 

The team woke up for the game against Reading, however! Will Thompson broke the deadlock with a fine weaving run in the first half after a period of pressure, and then the floodgates opened despite brave defence from Reading after half-time. Tries came from Josh Edney (2), Leo Smith, Duncan Jones, with another from Will Thompson to round off a comfortable 6-0 win. Moment of the game was a brave and technically excellent tackle by Dominik Bart on the biggest Reading forward who was running straight at him – a fine example for all to learn from. 

With Bath and Ealing visiting next weekend, we really must try and and be wide awake from the first whistle!