U12s get hands on B Cup at Marlow

Sunday 26th March 2006

The bulk of the squad that had returned with medals from Worthing were raring to go in the Marlow B competition on Sunday, along with a host of other attendees giving the selectors a major headache. The good news was that the threatened rain held off until the very end of the competition, leading to some good running rugby as well as some power struggles amongst the forwards.

The first game was against Henley who we had lost to earlier this year. The team was selected with Hal Orchard once again being team captain. The first half finished 0-0, with a few indecisive referee calls which seemed to slow the game down. In the second half George Thomas broke away for the only try of the game and so Maids were off to a winning start.

The second game was against Stratford upon Avon, a strong side with a good pack, who Maids had not come across before. It was a strong fought game with Stratford scoring first, then Iain Whiteford managed to break the opposition back line and level the score. The game ended in a draw.

The third game, against Marlow, was interesting with a 14 year old boy from Windsor refereeing! The young man did very well in the circumstances although some of the helpful “advice” he received from the touchline did not necessarily seem to favour Maids! Despite this Maids emerged comfortably victorious, with a first try from Ross Brown, who seemed to cover every square foot of the pitch on his way to the line, and a second being added by Jonathan Perry.

The next game was scheduled to be against Wasps, but it then emerged that they had “buzzed off” after a disappointing start to their day. In due course and after much deliberation Maids were given a bye, which in conjunction with the other pool results put us through to the final.

The final was against Chobham, another team that we hadn’t played before. It was a tense first half with Chobham giving away 3 penalties for high tackles, but Maids failing to capitalise as kicks didn’t find touch... The score at halftime was 0-0. In the second half Chobham opened the scoring and then pressed hard to close the game off. Fantastic defence from Jonathan Perry holding the ball up on one attack, and cover tackles from Shiv Khindria, Michael Lewis and Steven Carn amongst others kept Maids in the game, and with only a few minutes left on the clock Hal Orchard managed to get over their try line to level things. Michael Lewis put in one last outstanding try saving tackle on the wing to prevent Chobham from stealing the game, and the Cup was jointly awarded after a very tough match.

Squad was:
Hal Orchard, Josh Edney, George Thomas, Blake Nicol, Iain Whiteford, Sam Scott, Shiv Khindria, Dhruv Syria, Ross Brown, Stephen Carn, Michael Lewis, Piers Baron, Aaron George, Jonathan Perry, Alice Macleod, Calum O’Flaherty, Alex McCullogh, Max Ring, Jason Bates

Special thanks to Jason and Max who also helped out the Under 11s, showing true Club spirit.