Harlow 4th XV  54 Harlow 3rd XV 7

Friendly (So called) Saturday 24^th January 2009

After much consideration a friendly fixture was arranged between the two Harlow sides as Cheshunt had called off and the fixture exchange was not looking good.  We had of course previously checked the club website to make sure there were no dodgy ringers going to be playing!  A lot of people were up for it; pretty much the whole 4th team in fact.  Chris P was not available so there was no pre-match pitch inspection.  The 2nd team lacked the energy to go to Ash tree field, so we warmed up by walking the huge distance.  The 4th team numbers are back to where they were at the start of the season so we could help out the 3s as promised.

Tony took control as ref and off we went. The 4th team opened the scoring when Gaggy crashed through the defence shortly after the kick off; this was converted by Crabby.  I forgot to mention Gaggy set up 3 tries last week and I nearly forgot he scored this week!  Then Crabby scored; he found some space out on the right wing and hit the gas. He left everyone in his wake and scored in the corner.  Danny Fitz was next; a penalty manoeuvre after a bit of handbags was put into action,  It was called the “Danny” move: Gaggy spun the ball out to him as he lined up Rupert (Judas 1) who cunningly managed to not get hit by Danny as he scored nearly under the posts.  Crabby scored his second try after the ball was moved swiftly through the backs from our 22. Again he left just about everyone for dead and this time scored on the left wing.  One of the opposition was not happy about this and more handbags broke out, but this was swiftly dealt with by Tony. There was a quick chat and it was decided that as we all play for the same club we should be a bit nicer to each other.  All through the first half there were several players who were intent on spoiling the 4th team day out. The 3s did this by winning the ball in the scrum and passing the ball out for some powerful running from the backs. These players include Martin Mallia; Strads; Ricky; James; and Jay. While Freddy (Judas 2) Lloyd was tackling like his place in the 4th team depended on it and was not once pinged for being offside!

The second half saw the 4th team swapping players so that everyone could get a game.  Freddy and Rupert swapped with Mark (Judas 3) and Rob Kelly popped up for the 3s.  Carl dropped into the centres and scored twice; running at pace and breaking tackles.  Swampy scored and he was mighty pleased with himself as it was his silky dribbling skills (not his “frothing”) that saw him beat the shocked winger and fullback: he dived between them and touched the ball down.  When asked about the dive he was non-committal as it is frowned upon in the 4th team.  Welsh Terry playing at 10 was a pain for the whole game as his sidestep made a lot of people look foolish. He scored under the posts and converted it himself.  The last score belonged to Mumbles who beat the winger for pace as he set off from our 22. At one point his legs turned to jelly and it looked as though Jay was going to catch him.  He scored with a sort of ballet style dive which one of these days will hurt as he lands (hopefully). 

It was nice to see Dangler Dan the South African back with us and also Neil the prop, who was back on the pitch after a long rest.  The whole game was good fun and I reckon just about everyone enjoyed it. Well done to all the 3s for giving us a good game!

Comedy moments of the game occurred when Hammer Harrison danced away from the incoming tackler, apparently in a moonwalk style, silky dance move, which saw the opposition player fly into touch missing him by feet (unfortunately the next tackler nearly had his head off). Also when Rhys popped out of the scrum as if he was on stilts; not a happy front row I reckon! Third moment was when Doreen slipped into a shirt designed for someone a few sizes smaller – surgery was required to remove it after the game! Final moment was when Ramraid, having seen Doreen, slipped into the Number 9 shirt for the opposition!

MOTM - Crabby, having scored twice was gutted to miss one conversion.  People who don’t often get a mention - Barney, Wingco, Auntie, Justin, Mex, Big Andy, all of whom just get on with it.

COTM - Mumbles-ballerina, for not passing to his support and greedily scoring.

Please note my apologies for the lateness of this match report but Don told me I needed to check my spellings and punctuation before issuing any further reports.

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