The Fortress Holds

Chinnor Wildboys vs Newbury Stags 2XV

09/03/19

It was a cold morrow on March 9th 1864. The United States of America was divided by specific political and ethical dilemmas which threatened the Nation’s future. President Abraham Lincoln needed to appoint a leader to his troops. This task was entrusted to Ulysses S Grant, Commander of the Union Army who lead his forces to defeat the Confederates and; years later, help abolish the Act of Slavery freeing hundreds of thousands of people.

Fast forward 155 years, Captain George White and his Wildboys were playing their final game of the season at Kingsey Road against a formidable Newbury side. With the BBO1 league already won, Captain White knew there was no room for any complacency as Newbury had previously fielded a very tough opposition earlier in the season.

There was also an issue of personnel, as many of the Wildboy troops were unavailable for various reasons. Absentees included Mark ‘father time’ Bradburn, big Sammy Jones, Tom ‘Tots’ Rackstraw, Dan ‘DC’ Coulon, Robert ‘fat controller’ Nicholls and Guy ‘Judus’ Hackshaw. The services of Tom Jarvis and Jon Down were called upon as reinforcements.

The Wildboys kicked the game off against the wind, pinning Newbury back into their half with solid defence and waited for the opposition to make mistakes. Eventually the Wildboys got their hands on the ball and George ‘Handsome’ Hope broke the deadlock with a well worked score.

Several scrums attacking down the blindside saw Chinnor build the pressure and as the phases developed further tries followed for Harry Lowe and Tom ‘wonderboy’ Strathdee. Despite their dominance the Wildboys failed to add to this lead for the next 20 minutes. Every strong charge from Jayson ‘squidward’ Abbott, Maxi ‘crossfit’ Williams and Harry ‘the barrel’ Franklin gave good forward momentum but Newbury were stubborn in their defence. The returning Jon Down made a break but failed to back himself and foolishly offloaded to a covering Newbury defender, thus wasting the opportunity. Eventually Harry Lowe crossed the whitewash for his second of the game, bonus point secured and the Wildboys infront a comfy 24-0 at half time.

The second half quickly commenced, the Wildboys now with the wind on their backs and would use this in order to gain territorial advantage. Cosher was brought into the front row and made immediate impact with his dynamism and work rate around the park. The only two tries of the second half went to wonderboy Strathdee as his trademark scything runs allowed him to break the gainline with ease and swat away any attempts to stop him. The only other noteworthy moment of the half fell to Harry ‘Bomber’ Hillier who pulled the strings at flyhalf and thought he had dotted down in the corner, only for the referee to deem a knock on. Uncharacteristically Bomber lost his temper and his disagreement with this decision cost the Wildboys possession as they were marched back 10 metres. Injuries to the Newbury Stags meant that their forces were severally depleted by the 70 minute mark. They had only travelled with 16 players, several of whom were Colts and had perhaps not played the adult game before. The game was eventually drawn to a close 10 minutes early, apologies to Sean Latham and Tom Floyd who had just come off of the bench for the Wildboys.

The final score was 36-0 to the Wildboys, 6 tries total; 3 of which were successfully converted by the boot of Bomber, another unbeaten season at home declared a job well done by Captain George White. After the votes were counted Man of the Match indisputably went to wonderboy Strathdee for his hat trick of tries. Mare of the Match on this occasion was awarded to Bomber for throwing his toys out of the proverbial pram, however it was carried out by Jon Down in Bombers absence for butchery of a certain try in the first half. The Wildboys now had a week off before their final 2 games of the season, both away at Reading.

Gossip Girl xoxo

Tries – G. Hope, H Lowe 2, T Strathdee 3

Conversions – H Hillier 3

Man of the Match – T Strathdee

Mare of the Match – J Down (H Hiller pint to follow)