Alcester U11 come to Evesham

With the mini festival a few short weeks away, a first practise at colour coded cones on Sunday, try lines in yellow, clubhouse touchline in blue and far touch in orange. Be honest, you didn’t notice did you ?. I don’t know WHY we bother. Twenty minutes that took, and with no lines to follow I have still seen straighter trails of kebab crumbs on a Friday night. Luckily the kids never run straight anyway so no one knew.

Thirteen from Alcester and sixteen from Evesham, so eleven a side to make the most of it over 20 minutes each way. Rain imminent, pitch already heavy, parents dressed for a polar challenge and 10 year olds stood in a field. It must be Sunday.

Blues
Front row: JSD, Cake, Carpet, Second row: Big Tom Merrall and Olly Neal (shame it is uncontested because that is a pack with some push), 9-Maximus, 10-Slate, 11-James, 12-Turbo, 13-Bretty and 14-Slippery. Subs initially ‘Gentleman George’ Tinson, Mighty Mullen, Indie and Ears Pearce. Everyone took a turn at sub.

Evesham owned the first 10 minutes with tries for James (off a JSD maul), Slippery (off a Turbo/Bretty combination), Olly Neal from a great support run getting on the end of a Slate to Slippery move and 2 for Slippery on his usual teflon coated solo efforts. Bretty made a break and dropped it looking for an offload just short of the line – we will talk about THAT when we get home.

Then ten minutes in, Ed starts re-living all those Happy Mondays concerts he used to go to by wearing out the whistle, exclusively against Evesham. Clearly something playing on his mind, just as I had concluded that those lycra shorts must have shrunk in a boil wash Ed revealed that he was being deliberately harsh to combat a growing trend in swinging arms and offside at penalties. Tough love, polishing the small things (with the whistle, not the shorts), but it worked as the lads started to self-correct and regulate – two hands on the ball, getting back onside quickly, good work chaps.

By half time Alcester had amassed 2 tries, one from a good break into the left corner and a penalty try awarded against Evesham for 'descent'. Pure frustration but an intro to adult rugby and the gentlemanly conduct required.

Second half started by Alcester holding up Slippery on the line, Maximus over off a Slippery pass and Big Tom Merrall thundered over for a try. Now the rain has turned the writing pad to mache which stopped the biro working, so I am brass rubbing the rest of this off my engraving in the mush.

Looks like tries for Bretty, Slippery, Slippery off an excellent catch by Slate, Slate then running a restart catch straight back across the line and a final try for Bretty off good rucking work by Geordy ‘Carpet’ Wright. Alcester held up JSD towards the end to deny one last hurrah.

I make it 12:2. By now Ed has worn out 2 whistles and is onto his spare-spare.

Credit to Alcester who worked hard throughout and kept us honest. All smiles at the end, a most enjoyable morning.

CCR: Towards the end of the warm up, just when coaches coffee was starting to feel like a distant memory with all hope lost, Mrs Aris appeared like an angel in woolly blue hat. Never has a teaspoon of dissolved instant been more welcome. Our very own B’Aris’ta. Thank you.

Man of the Match: You know it is funny, you go on the RFU courses, read the books and have regular midweek strategy meetings to carefully position the lads and lass in the most appropriate positions, and then they go and show that they should play somewhere else without even realising it. This week Tom ‘Slate’ Stone naturally slid from 10 to 15 at the restarts and had a great game as fullback catching everything, distributing and returning the ball with interest. Great work today Slate, worthy winner.

Things you need to do next: Ed and JB away with work on Wednesday but we are working on an option to train with Steve Hyatt and the U12s. Then Sunday 15th – training at home, we are hosting a development training game for the U10s to try out next seasons new rules.