Harlow 4th XV 31 Upper Clapton 4th XV 24

Merit Table

Saturday 10th April 2010

The lateness of this match report revolves around the complete inability of the older members of the team to remember any of the details of the game.  After 5 long years the 4th team have finally beaten their local rivals, it came on a weekend were all the other club teams were not quite so clinical.

With Clapton short of numbers they filled the gaps with Colts and it was agreed that rolling subs would be used.  A new referee was being used, this being his 3rd game; suspect he was not popular with his team mates as he was pretty fair.

Clapton got off to a good start when they ran in 2 tries, their pack was just as big as ours and they used this to great effect.  A quick pop to the front of the line saw one of their largest forwards crash over the line, they sucked in the defence and in fairness were pretty unstoppable.  This spurred Harlow into action, with Crabby picking up an interception and scoring under the posts, he kicked the conversion leaving the score at 10-7.  Clapton scored again the details of which no one can recall except that they converted this one.  Gaggy scored next when he sped off down the right wing (he is a back now after all), after his first dummy you would have thought the colts might have realised what he was going to do, but no, about 4 dummies later he scored.  Throughout this half, the defence had been strong and well organised.  The pack with Danny, Neal, Chris, Barney, Rob Matthews, Kevin, Aunty, Myself, Swampy and Big Dan all worked hard to try and control the Clapton forwards.  The number 8 for Clapton was a handful as was Kev Knee.  At half time we turned round 17-14 with everything to play for and the slope and wind in our favour.

The backs consisting of Justin, Crabby, Mumbles, Rob Spinks, Hammer, James, Big Karl and Gaggy were made to work hard the whole game.  Special mention to Mumbles who seemed to pop up everywhere, he chased every kick and tackled anything in his way.  Big Karl came on and using his new streamline bulk crashed over to score, he will probably be looking to play front row next season, and after a short appearance needed to sit down and take a breather.

Crabby was getting bored of not scoring any points for a while and decided that a drop goal should be used to keep the scoreboard ticking over, he decided not to tell anyone else he was going to do this and the shouts of “Noooooooo” rapidly changed to “yeeeesssss” when it went over.

The Clapton colts were very accommodating towards us as they seemed determined to take the ball into contact at every opportunity, not realising that running around us is usually the best way to score.  With James off briefly following a high tackle, a kick deep into the Clapton 22 saw their full back try and take on Mumbles and Crabby, he lost the ball which was popped to Freddy “I’m not quite retired yet, although I enjoyed the party” Lloyd, ignoring the open line and wanting to get closer to the posts, he cut back into the defence.  Popping it to Big Dan who seemed to have been stopped short of the line (Swampy was all set to ruck over) an arm appeared, it stretched, and stretched and stretched even further to ground the ball right under the referees nose.

This put Harlow into a marvellous position although it was not over yet, Clapton made the most of a miskick to score, unfortunately they missed the conversion.  Desperate defence saw Harlow keep Clapton out with them applying constant pressure at the end of the game.

Funny moments-The referee spending the first 10 minutes checking with the Clapton fly half that he had made the correct decision.

Chris Powell “accidentally” stepping on the back of the young wingers’ boot this caused him to trip up, and not score.

Swampy making his return from injury- he was like a kid in a sweetshop.

Karl making an appearance, in tight fitting, pale blue shorts and clashing red socks.

The Clapton full back getting caught by Mumbles, he had done a little hitch kick and thought he was away.

Barney getting increasingly angry that the line out was not straight, winning all of our ball and wanting some of theirs.

MOTM-No one person could get this as the whole team played their part in this victory.  Big thanks to the supporters who came and watched. The referee deserves a mention taking a firm grip of the game after the first 10 minutes and giving us nothing to complain about.  Best ref we have had over there.

COTM-No one deserves this, the game was one of the least troublesome that we have had over the years.  .

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