Extra A 64 v Hackney 2s 7

The Extra A welcomed Hackney to an extremely busy Silver Leys on Saturday, in what was a must win game for the Stortford side, after losing their last 2 league matches against some strong opposition. After a hectic Friday night ring around, we were pleased to boast a squad with a decent mixture of youthful endeavour and experienced grunt. Jonesy or Rosey came through a the very last minute, as did Adam Higgs, and premature retiree Ed Merrivale agreed to dust off the boots, so thanks to the three of you. The same fixture last year ended in a 13-a-piece draw, and we won narrowly away at Hackney earlier this season, so we were ready for a tough encounter.

Stortford kicked off and immediately Hackney signalled their intent with several strong carries close to the breakdown. The Blue defence was solid though, thanks in no small part to the work of our back row trio of Law, Harrison (both playing out of position) and Diddy. It was Stortford who struck first though, after neat interplay saw Tank (who has actually had the name 'Tank' embroidered onto his new purple boots) go through on the full back, commit him and send centre Aran Martinson through untouched for the opening score of the game. This try seemed to settle the blues and from then on we began to assert our dominance around the park. The set piece was a real strength, particularly the scrums, where dynamic prop duo Prime and Slayer put in some punishing displays which led to clean ball for us, and- perhaps more importantly- put Hackney on the back foot on their own ball. We scored some excellent tries in the first half; Ben Law found himself in space down the wing after neat work from hooker Will Moore (this actually happened I swear), chipped over the full back and somehow beat him there to fall on the ball for an excellent try. Ben Harrison, not to be outdone by his back row colleague, found himself in space on the other side of the pitch minutes later, and with one man to beat and 2 players either side of him, he managed to throw a dummy, slip the tackle and score. Ridiculous. We didn't have it all our way though, and Hackney had a period of sustained pressure within our 22. Our defence and line speed-led by Aran Martinson (the new saint)- meant that there was no score, but we were probably lucky to escape without a yellow card after a succession of penalties. Winger Joe Marsh was put in space after neat work from Merrivale and Stig dog, but totally chickened out and cut back inside as the full back covered. Further first half tries were scored by Moore, Sperm (shock) and Slade.

Half time meant we had to fulfil our promise to Ed and let him leave the field, to be replaced by the returning glass man, Ashley Boyle. Hackney kicked off and we immediately got back on the front foot; Diddy Byatt marauded downfield to set up good field position, then some other stuff happened and someone scored. There was a blip for the Blues next; Sperm, who had recently attempted a kick into space which went laterally at best, threw an inch-perfect pass to the opposing 12, who brushed off an embarrassing Ben Law tackle attempt to score close to the posts. We resumed normal practice soon after this though, Tiarnan Kelly getting in on the act with a powerful finish in the corner, which was followed up with a good short range try from Diddy Byatt. Hackney then had a scrum on their own 5m line, which we powered through and the ball was touched down eventually by either Will Moore or Diddy. Neither of them would concede the try, and the bickering continued long after the final whistle went. Joe Marsh was denied by what felt like a very harsh forward pass call, before Aran Martinson scored again to round off proceedings. Sperm's drop kick conversion took his tally to 7/10 for the day, and the final score to 64-7.

A very pleasing performance from the Extra A. Credit should also go to Hackney, who were a much harder side than the scoreline suggests. D*ck of the day bizarrely went to Sperm for the lateral kick/interception pass fiasco. The committee clearly overlooked his bone crunching tackling, commanding leadership and 21 points. Man of the Match was a split decision, so naturally they both got a pint. Diddy Byatt (45) for rolling back the years with a strong all round display, and Will Moore for an energetic performance and for scoring an undetermined amount of tries.

The first team beat table topping OAs (in case you didn't know), the Blues extended their unbeaten run, and the fourth team confirmed with their win, that it was a BSRFC clean sweep on Saturday. This led to a night of booze, banter and bum-licking; I'm sure that much fun was had by all.