Worcester visit Evesham

Not the most promising of starts. Rob Mullen, stealthily Welsh, was so miffed at the defeat by England on Friday that he took his revenge on English rugby by forgetting the match shirts. A hasty call to Mullen HQ and like the title sequence of ‘Challenge Anneka’ Emma was off and running to beat the ref’s whistle or we are playing skins.

Great to see Will Gazelle-derson down for a social visit, wrist still in a splint but looking fitter than a butcher’s dog and ready to get back into a match shirt. The lads and coaches were pleased to see you Will, thanks for making the time.

Worcester brought a single development team in need of tackling practise, Evesham jumbled themselves up into two roughly equal sides to provide exactly that.

Maroons up first (blue shirts still inbound, Mrs Mullen with ears back and full stride now down the Albert Road straight) v Worcester. Nine a side, let’s see what happens.

JSD, Tom Davis and Geordi, Maximus, Jack Russell, Turbo Tommy, Slippery Wycherley, Indie and Mighty Mullen.

The Worcester lads gave it their all but the traffic was largely one way with tries for Indie (middle), JSD (left), JSD (middle), Slippery (middle), Tommy (left side flier) and two more for JSD. Evesham defence was strong with everyone doing their bit to keep Worcester out. Proper team performance, try scorers only did so because of a solid platform.

Blues, now in immaculate shirts v Worcester
Olly Neal, Cake, George, Aimee, Slate, Bretty, Big Tom Merrall, Ears Pearce, Joel and James Hoare. 10 a side against 11 from Worcester, why not.

Blues picked up where Maroons left off with tries for Slate, James (ruck near the line), Bretty (up the middle), Aimee, Bretty and Slate. Blues defence the equal of Maroons and again kept Worcester from the line.

Maroons v Worcester
An unchanged squad for Maroons faced 10 from Worcester. Worcester grew into their defensive duties to limit Maroons to 2 tries this time, Slippery and JSD, both in the left corner. Mighty Mullen was at the line again, just stopped short of what would have been his second in as many weeks. Tommy crossed the whitewash but was taken into touch ‘in goal’ and Slippery ran the length of the pitch to halt a breakaway try.

A lot to ask of a single team to play another game and so it was declared a day whilst everyone was still smiling. Ignoring the score, today was about match experience for Worcester and an opportunity for different playing combinations for Evesham. Sunshine, muddy knees, running about with your mates, all for the simple joy of it then a catering-pack sausage in a long life bun – childhood memories right there.

Special thanks to Darren for stepping in to referee in Ed’s absence, he did a great job adapting from senior rugby and echoed my thoughts that there are some ERFC stars of the future amongst the U11’s.

Thanks to the parents who came down early to help with Match Day Management – Steve, Bov under the careful supervision of Mrs Wycherley, Simon ‘Parkit’ Wright in charge of the long stay, Phil Stone (another one now hiding the Tom Jones CDs) and any others I missed.

CCR (Coaches Coffee Run): The fragrant Mrs Aris, in pink everything.

Man of the Match: ‘Turbo’ Tommy Westby for pace and solid defence.

Next thing you need to do: Training on Sunday, 10:15.

JB