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U12s' victory at Cobham Sunday 13th November 2005 |
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On a cold but dry day, in the early hours of a misty Sunday morning, Maidenhead Under 12s arrived at a new venue. We were the first squad there, not knowing what to expect parents with bleary eyes asking why I had asked them to be there so early. Dennis Orchard went straight to the food tent to get 16 bacon rolls and coffees for the parents but on his return they seemed to have vanished. We had been drawn to play Rosslyn Park first and then Tunbridge Wells. We were the 2nd team on. Alastair Whiteford had been out with his level and found out that there was a slope on the pitch. He told the squad that if you play up hill in the first half then it’s down hill in the second. This seemed to work in all of our matches. (Psychology) We watched the first game against the home side Cobham v Teddington. It was all even at the end 7 points each. We were next on against a side that we had not played before. We used Alastair’s tactics of playing up field. Hal Orchard was the captain for the day. He won the toss and decided to allow Rosslyn Park to start. The first half was pretty much even, although our forwards were still digesting their bacon rolls. The score at half time was 0-0. A talking to the forwards seemed to wake them up. The second half started and the kick was taken by Iain Whiteford. The forwards chased after the ball, Rosslyn Park counter attacked but with some outstanding defence from the backs, Rosslyn Park lost the ball. Maidenhead fought forward after each ruck and maul. They were getting closer to the try line. A maul had been set, when suddenly Blake Nicol ripped the ball out and with a big surge from Hal they both touched down simultaneously. Rosslyn Park had some hands near the ball and appealed for holding up but the try was given. Iain converted and the score became 7-0 to Maidenhead at the end of the game. Our next match was against Tunbridge Wells. These boys seemed a lot larger than us! On came some fresh legs from our reserves and battle commenced with Maidenhead going up hill once again in the first half. Tunbridge Wells’ backs were very well drilled with their strength and size. Tunbridge scored the opening try but missed the conversion. Iain was in tremendous form all day with his excellent penalty kicking giving his side advantage - ‘Johnny Wilkinson you have a contender on your hands’. Tunbridge were unable to score further in the 1st half. The talk at half time seemed to work. They were playing down hill once again. There was some excellent play from scrum half Jonathan Perry, this meant that our backs had plenty of ball. We had just passed the half way line, in the middle of the pitch when Jonathan passed the ball out from a ruck, to Michael Lewis who then passed the ball to Matthew Smith, running at speed from depth along the wing, and he made 10 meters with 5 boys on his back! He then passed the ball perfectly to his team mates. It was then passed out to the backs and then Gareth Orwin came from nowhere, on the left wing to take control. He side-stepped and with sheer determination scored a try in the left hand corner with inches to spare. Once again Iain converted. The match finished Tunbridge Wells 5, Maidenhead 7. We were in the semi-finals. This was against Sutton & Epsom, who also had several tall boys, but we were not put off. Once again Maids started playing up hill and once again Maids allowed a try through, but Sutton was unable to convert. The half time talk worked its wonders once more with some outstanding play from the forwards and backs. The backs got the ball and Robert Beeny scored his first try for Maidenhead. Iain had not missed a conversion or a penalty kick all day, full time was imminent we all waited with bated breath, the crowd was quiet. Iain performed his warm up routine; he kicked the ball, which just clipped the underneath of the crossbar. A deep sigh was heard around the ground. With only seconds left of the game left the final whistle went. The score was 1 try apiece. We all looked around to see what was to happen next. The official came over and said there would be extra time - 3mins each way. There was no time for a water break and so we went straight into the extra time. The team stood there ground and no tries were conceded, it remained a draw. I was asked if I wanted to do a kicking contest to see who should go through to the final; even though we had won on count back we declined the offer. We had won yet again. We watched the other semi-final, Cobham had won and so we were to play the home side in the final. Team spirit was high although we had been waiting around for about an hour. The team was selected and once again we played our joker card, with us playing up hill in the first half. We decided that all players would play in the final. It was 0-0 at half time. The decision was made to change the team. Hal had played all of the matches and looked dead on his feet, we told him that he would sit out this last half. The look on his face said it all; I reversed my decision and left him on. Hal scored the only try of this game and Iain converted. We had an injury though, Michael had twisted his knee, we substituted and the ref came over and said that this was the last of game play. Matthew came on as replacement. There was a tense few minutes until the ball was made dead. The referee blew the whistle. We had won again and won the TOURNAMENT! Man of the match was Hal Orchard - he led his team to the end. Most improved player was Daniel Williams a great scrum half pass and forward play. Best kicker Iain Whiteford The whole team played as one - you should all be proud. THE WINNING SQUAD: Aaron George, George Thomas, Blake Nicol, Hal Orchard, Adam Callaway, Jacob Sanders, Max Ring, Andrew (Ross) Brown, Jonathan Perry, James Balmer, Daniel Williams, Robert Beeny, Matthew Smith, Michael Lewis, Gareth Orwin, Iain Whiteford Results: Tunbridge Wells 5 Maidenhead 7 Sutton & Epsom 5 Maidenhead
5 Cobham 0 Maidenhead 7 |
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