On the 4th March 1984 the members of Duran Duran were in Toronto preparing themselves for a huge concert at the Maple Leaf Gardens. It featured a set-list laden with toe tapping tunes and hits that were playing in discotheques all around the world. It was the seventh track on the playlist that will be forever remembered, as this version of “(I’m looking for) Cracks in the pavement” was recorded live to feature as the B-side on their forthcoming single “The Wild Boys”!
The single “The Wild Boys” was based on the novel of the same name by William S. Burroughs, in which a guerrilla gang of boys dedicated to freedom battles the organized armies of repressive police states.
If you were to fast forward 33 years from that day in Toronto and travel the 3,510 miles to the hallowed turf of Chinnor Rugby Club, you would be faced with the latest incarnation of Wildboys. They may have lost the punctuation space between wild and boys and they may only be a gang of boys playing rugby rather that battling police states, but it’s symbolic and that’s kind of a big deal.
On this occasion the aforementioned Wildboys welcomed Thatcham II’s to Kingsey Road for the first game in Spring. Like the daffodils dressing the verges of the Kingsey Road, the Wildboys blossomed into life as Ollie Jackson leapt to receive the kick off. The ball was taken into contact, then a following crash ball taken in by the White brothers gave the backs platform to run their first move of the day resulting in Adam Draper touching down under the posts. James Way slotted the conversion to put Chinnor up 7-0.
Once again Ollie Jackson was leaping like a spring lamb to take the restart, the resulting moves nearly identical to the above and this time Max Wood was touching down under the posts. A narrowly missed conversion put the score at 12-0. This was much how the game continued for the first half, it wasn’t that Thatcham weren’t putting a shift in, just that the Wildboys were once again “hungry like the wolf” and with that hunger the recently lost form was regained.
At the half way mark the score was 69-0 in favour of the Wildboys, the forwards were dominating the breakdowns and set-pieces allowing George Mahendran to give good clean ball out to Rob Nichols and the fresh centre pairing of Jon Down and Jayson Abbott who in turn had support from the in form Max Wood, James Way and the seemingly back in form Adam Draper.
The Wildboys made some changes at half time within the pack and they were immediately tested with scrum 5m from their own tryline. They clearly hadn’t yet found their footing as they were marched back for one of the few times in the game allowing Thatcham’s number 8 to touch down for their only try of the game. The resulting conversion was slotted by the expert boot of Thatcham’s fly half to reduce the defecit to 69-7.
The forwards learnt from this mistake and were once again performing as they did throughout the first half and the same can be said for the backs. Many more points were scored by the Wildboys, with the final score perhaps the biggest in the history of Chinnor III’s at 107-7. The standout try of the day came from Ollie Jackson, who took the ball from the restart, sat down a couple of defenders and merrily ran all the way to the tryline. Other tries came from Rob Nichols, Max Williams, Jayson Abbott, James Way, George Mahendran, George Hope managed 2, Max Wood just the 4 and Adam Draper a round tally of 5. James Way converted 10 and Adam Draper 1. Credit has to go to Thatcham for battling until the last minute and to the referee for ensuring the game remained a fair contest throughout.
It truly was an expert performance from all 18 of the Wildboys who graced the field on this occasion, man of the match nominations went to Jon Goodson for a typical work-horse display, Adam Draper for his try scoring expertise and Jayson Abbott for his creativity and a few others too, but M.O.M this week went to Ollie Jackson for his big carries and general work around the park. Mare of the match was tough as there were few, if any, calamitous moments, but Max wood was awarded it for passing the ball behind James Way for a certain try.
Next week the Wildboys travel to Reading Abbey for their final away day of the season, until then, keep it wild….
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Gossip Girl
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Man of the Match: Ollie Jackson
Mare of the Match: Max Wood
Tries: A.Draper (5), M.Wood (4), G.Hope (2), G.Mahendran, J.Way, J.Abbott, M.Williams, R.Nichols, O.Jackson
Convs: J.Way (10), A.Draper