On the 9th of September in 1839 John Herschel took the very first glass plate negative print, and in turn the etymology of the word ‘photography’ is attributed to him. In the same month 163 years later a new word for a type of photography was first recorded, it was the awful word ‘selfie’ which has become far too popular and used by all. Nine years after its first use it was added to the 2013 English Dictionary and voted the word of the year. Move forward a further 4 years to the 9th September 2017 and the Wilboys were visiting the Newbury Stags for their first game of the 2017/18 season and they hoped that the occasion would call for one of their trademark changing room ‘selfies’.
The Newbury Stags were an unknown entity to the Wildboys as it was the first encounter between the two. All that was known is that the Stags had had a couple of pre-season friendlies, whilst the Wildboys were yet to have had the whole team to a single training session and in fact struggled to have a proper team warm-up due to the uncharacteristically late arrival of Adam Draper.
As the game commenced it was clear that of the two, the Stags were the better drilled squad, they were quicker to the breakdowns and were bullying the comparatively lightweight pack at scrum time. However, a moment of clarity saw the Wildboys regain a spot of their usual form and saw a few powerful runs from the forwards resulting in the breakthrough try of the game, touched down by the handsome George Hope. It was then struck sweetly by James Way for a ‘Smashing!’ conversion to put the Wildboys 0-7 up.
It would be imagined that the Wildboys would now have their tails up and start playing with some of their previous form, yet this was not the case and it was the Stags who dominated the rest of the half. It seemed that the Wildboys did not want to be at the hunt, letting the Stags run free, and allowing them to score two tries before the half closed at 12-7.
As the second half commenced the Newbury boys continued in the same vain, yet this time the Wildboys grit came to the fore. They were tackling well and not allowing the Stags to dominate the set pieces and rucks as they were in the opening 40 minutes. They once gifted a penalty to the Stags which was duly converted, extending the Stags lead to 15-7, yet the grit and perseverance began to shine through. Some commanding play from Tom Jarvis at 9 and some dynamic running from Jayson Abbott at 12 saw the Wildboys begin to break down the solid Stags defence. It seemed as though the Wildboys were finding their inner wildness and this resulted in two tries from Adam Draper, one of which was converted by Tom Jarvis, putting the final result at 15-19 in their favour.
It was a hard-fought opening fixture of the season, with much room for improvement, but plenty of positives to be taken. Man of the match was awarded to Jayson Abbott who looked dangerous when in possession. Mare of the match was initially awarded to James Way, but amazingly was re-awarded to Guy Hackshaw who had a great game but who also managed to leave the team kit behind in the bar.
Next week sees the Wildboys host Bracknell for the first home game of the season. Until then, keep it Wild….
You know you love me
Gossip Girl
xoxoxo

Man of the Match: Jayson Abbott
Mare of the Match: Guy Hackshaw
Tries: G.Hope, A.Draper (2)
Conv: J.Way, T.Jarvis