Close loss in plate semi final.

After exiting the cup last week against Hemel Hempsted, we were entertained by Cuffley this Saturday. Understandably the vast majority of attention was lavished on our 1s due to their imminent success in the league, and a sincere congratulations to them, having played consistently well they are now promoted, and hopefully they will have a storming season in the next division up. More bizarrely, the thirds game was cancelled due to a riot at the prison they were to play at.

We started brightly and after a slight to-ing and fro-ing we had a penalty just outside their 22 in front of the posts. Up stepped Jake Brough with a beautifully struck kick to make it 0-3 to us. The Cuffley pack in the meantime imposed themselves in their usual way, a lot of late hits, a few punches, and a generally niggly dirty game proceeded with neither side thoroughly stamping their mark on the game. As usual, after an initial wobble our scrums won at least all our ball, and we edged the lineout but were consistently pinged for not releasing on the ground.

Half time arrived with the momumental score line of 0-3, Kev Stockdale retired to allow his dead leg to settle with the oncoming Andy Simpson who continued from his last man of the match performance to play very well.

Unfortunately as you will all know who played, about 10 minutes into the 2nd half, Chris Hadley, who had been having a superb game up until then, jumped and landed awkwardly on his right ankle, immediately making it audibly clear all was not well. Getting there a few seconds later his ankle had clearly dislocated, meaning it was also fractured, or as it turned out after x-ray, a fracture to both ankle bones. He had an operation today (Sunday) to fix the ankle, and I’m sure you’ll all wish him luck for as speedy recovery as possible.

As a result of this we moved pitches, I picked the end with the sun behind us and sloping downhill but unfortunately didn’t realise how strong the wind was, this making the last 30 minutes tricky as kicking became a much less viable option as it quickly transpired (yes Johnny, I’ll never doubt you again). A few people’s heads I suspect weren’t quite where they should be after seeing Mr Hadleys game come to its unfortunate end and the long and the short of it was that we struggled to keep the ball for long enough to create any pressure on the cuffley line or to be fair, half.

They kicked 2 penalties in this half, again for us (rightly on one occasion, wrongly on the second) holding on the floor, and thus the game finished 6-3.

Cuffley celebrated madly, and continued with their niggle, I felt disappointed to lose, but for me at least it was put into perspective by Chris’s injury. Finishing the match, he was eventually taken onto an ambulance whereby I think the young attractive blonde paramedic lady enjoyed a good deal of attention from most of our team under the pretence of checking Chris out…

That match somewhat disappointingly concluded my first year as captain. Looking back, my thoughts are that our season was a season of what it could have been. We ‘should’ have won about 6 more games, instead of just 6 but fortunately staying in the league by 1 point. I have (on the whole) thoroughly enjoyed this season, finding some great players, and welcomed a few colts into our team most of which will quickly rise through the teams until they go to uni. I played in the coldest game I have ever played in, the -3C game at Hendon in a level 2 inches of slushy water/mud in which 6 players developed hypothermia and played with the single worst ref I have experienced (you’ll know if you were there). Without a doubt my best game was our 6-5 win against OAs, which was an extremely intense game (and ranked 3 in my all time list!), and hopefully I will look forward to sharing the end of season drinks with you all on 25th May.

Here’s to next season, may it bring many more good games, memories and post-match drinks!

Chris