A team win at Abbey

What I like about the Abbey festival is its simplicity - one mini league consisting of 6 "A" teams. Each team plays each other and the winner is the team that finishes top (i.e. with the most points).

First up was Wallingford, a very big team indeed! The boys started well, and despite the early loss of Jed to injury, dominated the 1st half. They led 2-0 at halftime. In terms of our 2nd try, there was more than a hint of a knock-on in the build up. But as I explained to the fuming Wallingford coach, these things tend to even themselves up over the course of a season! The 2nd half was a much tighter affair with Wallingford scoring the only try. But if there was any doubt about our second try, then the ref clearly wanted to even things up - the Wallingford try scorer appeared to drop the ball over the try line. Final score, 2-1 win.

Next up was the hosts, Abbey. We hadn't played Abbey before so didn't know what to expect. The game itself was relatively one-sided. Two trys sealed an easy win. Our 2nd try proved to be the try of the day and deserves special mention. A scrum in our own half, close to the touchline, provided an ideal opportunity to try a set move. Sam dropped deep behind Jed and set-off on one of his trademark runs as soon as Jed collected the ball from the scrum. Jed missed out Aden with his pass. And with the Abbey defensive line completely deceived by Sam's run, Paddy collected the ball and ran through to score an easy try. Final score, 2-0 win.

We reserved our performance of the day for our great rivals, Redingensians. We'd already enjoyed some close matches this season. So it came as a bit of a surprise that this game was as one-sided as it turned out. In fact I don't recall Redingensians making it into our final 3rd of the pitch. 2 trys in the 1st half and another in the 2nd, sealed a very easy win. Final score, 3-0 win.

On paper our game against Reading was the easiest of the day - we'd already beaten them comfortably on several previous occasions. But it was actually our hardest. Perhaps some of the boys sensed an opportunity top score a try against weaker opposition? I don't know. But far too many times we simply chose the wrong option. On one occasion all the Reading boys were committed to the ruck. The ball came out our side, and despite a 4 boy overlap, we failed to score because a simple pass wasn't made. A single try in the 1st half was enough to earn the win. Final score, 1-0 win.

Before our final game against Aylesbury, I sent Kyle over to ask one of the Aylesbury boys how many games they'd won. The reply given was that they'd won 3 games. We already knew Aylesbury had drawn their first game. So this meant anything other than a loss and we'd win the festival. However, a review of the official standings confirmed Aylesbury had in fact won only 2 games and lost the other. This meant the result of the final game was academic - we'd already won the festival. Nobody told the boys. And the lesson to be learnt here - never trust a boy from Aylesbury!!! I left at halftime with the score 1-0 to us. And as I passed the pitch on my way out of the club, Aylesbury scored with the last play of the game. Final score, 1-1 draw.

Well done to the boys and of course Rich for running the team and the other coaches for supporting Rich