U14s win Maidenhead Tournament

14th October 2007

The Under 14 A squad were inspired by the bravery, competitiveness and team spirit of their B squad colleagues on Sunday to win their second successive Maidenhead Tournament.

The B squad had been carrying a “monkey on their back” for some time, competing bravely in a number of “A” competitions in recent years and repeatedly just missing out on tries and results. This year they grabbed the monkey and threw it away with a vengeance, as the whole squad worked together to notch several tries and gain a win and a draw against A team opposition.

Particular mention must go to a few players who put in massive performances for the B’s: Tyler Bellow gave a huge performance at tight head, Jacob Sanders and Tim Cronback made rampaging runs from the second row and Bryn Evans, Daniel Keir and George Thomas all played their part in the pack, whilst Simon Crosbie was an omnipresent open side flanker. Lawrence McSwan and Shiv Khindria were the stand-out backs both in attack and defence.

The B squad win came against Buckingham with 3 tries to nil, all scored by the backs, working from a great pressure platform established by the forward pack. Iain Whiteford got the first from a charge down, Lawrence McSwan the 2nd after a characteristically powerful run, whilst Shiv Khindria was on hand to finish a great move and impressive run by Niall Collins for the third.

Although a draw rather than a win, perhaps the more impressive performance for the Bs came against Wallingford, a big side which had been very competitive. The Bs went a try down in the first half, but then showed tremendous character to bounce back in the second half when Lawrence McSwan scored again to finish off a great backs move and the forwards then worked phenomenally hard to hold off Wallingford for a 5-5 draw.

The A squad started with wins but somewhat disjointed performances, to improve with every outing and finish unbeaten, having scored 25 tries and conceded none.

The first game was against the B squad, where a fierce forwards’ battle was punctuated by the A’s breaking away to score a series of tries which left them with a frankly flattering scoreline of 30-0. Tries came from Sam Maguire, Daniel Andrews-Jones, Alex Avery, Chris Dow and Tom Eckles (2).

Next opponents were Redingensians who have been enjoying a resurgence this season, but a better performance by Maids saw Alex Avery, Leo Smith and Daniel Andrews-Jones seal a 15-0 win. The team were not quite gelling yet and the score could have been higher but for several bouts of “white line fever”.

The A’s next took on Buckingham, and the forwards dominated the game, with a further try for Alex Avery, 2 for Sam Balfour and one apiece for Duncan Jones and Tom Eckles. Final score 25-0.

Injuries to Daniel Andrews -Jones and Tom Eckles resulted in a reshuffled back line for the game against Wallingford, resulting in a barnstorming ten try performance inspired by some awesome power running from Fred Reid in the unfamiliar position of wing. The 50-0 win came from 3 tries from Sam Maguire, 2 each from Alex McCulloch and Fred Reid, and 1 apiece for Leo Smith, Duncan Jones and Dominik Bart.

The dominance of the Maids’ performance ensured that a win or a draw in the final game against Dinas Powys would result in the As taking the trophy for the second year running. This was going to be a tight game against the unbeaten Welsh side, but an awesome performance from the Maidenhead pack and some ferocious tackling from the backs negated the Dinas Powys attacking threat and gave Maidenhead victory. Maids’ front row dominated their Welsh opponents and the winning try came from a heel against the head by Calum O’Flaherty and quick blindside break from Will Thompson who sent Fred Reid over in the corner to secure a narrow yet comfortable 5-0 win!