Harlow Ladies in good early season form in Boudicca Cup

The Boudicca Cup consists of a 15 a side and a ten a side competition. Harlow Ladies entered the 10 a side competition and ended third out of 8 teams in the competition. Charvills are sponsoring them again this season and on this showing they clearly justify the faith that their backers have shown in them. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly a 10 – 5 win over Lakenham Hewitt who won Harlow’s division of the league last season.  In the preliminary phase they finished pool runners up helped by a very good win over West Norfolk by 25  - 0. Tries came from Sarah Stimpson (2), Keighly Diprose, Beccy Nichol and Nicky Millman. In the third/fourth place play off tries by Nicky King and Sarah Solheim secured the key win over Leighton Hewitt.

In the 5^th/6^th place play off Keighly Diprose and Sarah Stimpson both guested for an injury hit West Norfolk, running in a try each. Harlow skipper Kelly Cotterill was also invited to guest, this time for Wasps Ladies in the 15 a side tournament. Very valuable experience playing with the side who eventually went on to win the tournament.

Thurrock 2nd XV 5 Harlow 2nd XV  13 - BL Essex Merit Table Div I

Harlow seconds produced a quality performance in their first game in the BL Essex merit Table on Saturday

 to record a much needed win against a very strong Thurrock side. Thurrock came out fighting from the start

 and put the pressure on Harlow for the 1st half of the game and it looked like another painful Saturday for 

the Rams as Thurrock ran in the 1st try of the day. Harlow's 1st score came just after the half time with a 

great penalty kick from Nick Ford. With points on the board Harlow picked up the tempo with some great 

attacking and a try was soon to follow with a nice little chip kick through the back line from Steven Ward. 

This was then converted by Nick Ford. With the score line 10-5 Harlow kept constant pressure on Thurrock 

capitalised on their poor defending, slotting another penalty by Ford. Final score 13-5

Team: W. Bayford, S. Wilkins, J. Hodges J. Snow, P. Huges, R. Snell (Capt), G. Hannson, S. Burrows, 

D. Dunn, N. Ford, S. Ward, G. Stanly,  G. McFerran, S. McClarnan, A. Phillips, D. Hawkins, 

L. Hodges, K. Palmer

Next Saturday Harlow seconds are at home to Basildon in another merit table game.

Harlow 3rd XV rounded off a good day for Harlow with a 31 – 14 win over Black Horse With tries from Graham Clark, Simon Van Beck, Adam Paine and Paul Eynon (2) Harlow had been due to play Hatfield I who cried off lat Thursday. Fortunately Black Horse who had also had a cancellation stepped in  to fill the gap.

Next Saturday Harlow firsts resume their league campaign with an away game at Norwich. They will face a tough challenge made harder by the fact that in this league long distance away games always seem to favor the home side.  In the long term however new player coach Alan Yates can take some comfort from the fact that stronger second and third teams will give him a much needed depth in the squad.