Under 17's

North Walsham 17 Shelford 7

Under 16’s

Shelford 17 Ely 10 

This was Shelford Under 16s first match for about one month and despite recording a 17-10 win over a stubborn Ely side at times the rustiness was all too obvious.  

The first half was mainly  a dour stalemate for long periods, both sides had kick aheads touched down to safety by the defences and Ely missed a kickable penalty midway through the first half. Ely eventually broke the deadlock after 25 minutes with a lovely kick through by their scrum half which resulted in their right winger touching down in the corner. The conversion was missed. This seemed to wake Shelford up and 5 minutes later on the half hour mark Jacob Milner took a great catch at the line out on the Ely 22 ,the forwards drove on and Jack Owen spotted a gap and ran through the Ely defence to score, the conversion was missed leaving the score 5-5 at the interval. 

Shelford upped the ante in the second half and with the introduction of some fresh legs began to dominate proceedings. Ely defended with great resilience until following a period of sustained pressure near the Ely line some quick thinking from a tap penalty resulted in Ally Dunham darting over the line from close range. James Gibson added the conversion to make the score 12-5.Ely briefly threatened after this score but Shelford were soon back on the front foot and following a line out on the 5 metre line with 5 minutes to go a great drive by the forwards resulted in Michael Dunnett driving over and scoring from close range. The conversion was missed making the score 17-5.On the last play of the match Ely scored a deserved consolation try in the corner following some late pressure making the final score 17-10 (the conversion attempt was missed).  

All in all a curates egg of a performance from Shelford, the forwards eventually got a hold of the game and were able to dominate as a result and whilst individually some of the backs played well collectively they were very ragged at times. Hopefully now they will get a run of games (and training) and the performances will get better. Still it was good to start 2011 with a win nonetheless.

Under 15’s

Peterborough 19 Shelford 65 

Shelford try scorers: Ed Lowe (3), Rew George (3), Sam Jones (2), Matt McCann (2), and James Knoop. Conversions: Ed Lowe (5) 

Shelford made it through to the second round of the County Cup with what was ultimately a comfortable win against a brave and hardworking Peterborough side. It was definitely a game of three halves. Shelford caught Peterborough cold with the pace of their running and the efficiency of their recycling and they were two tries on the board before 5 minutes had gone. Firstly powerful centre Ed Lowe burst through the middle to touch down, followed shortly afterwards by a wonderful handling movement that ended in a try for pacy winger Rew George. 

By 15 minutes Shelford were 5 tries to the good as second row Sam Jones grabbed a try for the forwards and George and Lowe scored again. Lowe revealed a hitherto well- hidden talent for kicking by slotting four excellent conversions and Shelford were 33-0 up before Peterborough had put a move together. Then something remarkable happened - instead of folding into depression and recrimination Peterborough lifted their heads up and started to play some great rugby. They attacked relentlessly through the blind side where Shelford's defence was disorganised and outnumbered.

In a ten minute period before half time Borough scored three unanswered tries so that the score at the interval was 33-19.  The momentum was with the hosts and there were worried faces among the Shelford coaching team. Stern words were needed at half time and they had the desired effect as the defence was immediately shored up. The forwards began to take a grip, dominating scrum and line out, where second row Liam Calvey was prominent. Borough began to tire and as their defence lost shape there was room for mazy runners like full back James Knoop and winger Matt McCann to exploit the doglegs. Knoop grabbed one try and McCann two. McCann should have had a hat trick, but inexplicably dropped the ball over the line after having completed a 120 yard run from his own half during which he crossed the pitch 4 times and beat every Peterborough player at least twice, including running three laps around their tight head prop. The more direct running of Jones, Lowe and George brought further tries - one further successful kick for Lowe brought his personal tally to 25 points.

Under 12's

Shelford 10 – 0 Royston

Try Scorers: Andy Williams & Tom Whitehead. This was the first game for Shelford since the middle of November and it showed at times but we preserved to win the match. Our pressure was finally rewarded with a try from Andy Williams just before the end of the first half. The second half started the same way with Shelford pressing up the field pushing Royston back which eventually led to our second try. Through the mass of bodies Tom Whitehead got the ball to dive over the line to score toward the end of the game.  

Shelford 20 – 10 Royston

Try Scorers: Louis Neal x 2, Ben Frisk & Stan Clark. Second game and second win of this morning. Shelford were much sharper in this game, having blown some of the cobwebs away from the first game and were much more direct having got use to the full pitch. This was demonstrated best by Louis Merton who earlier in the first half ran strongly to break through the Royston defence and within 5 minutes Louis broke free again to score a second try and thoroughly deserved. Royston stepped up and got one back but Shelford responded quickly when Ben Frisk cleverly side stepped a couple of Royston defenders and scored under the posts. Royston got another try. Shelford responded well with a good period of play and were rewarded when Stan Clark made it over in the corner. 

Under 10's 

After what seems like an incredibly long break due to snow and Christmas, the Under 10's played Royston at home. Although the team was certainly suffering from a distinct lack of practice, they played three good matches against Royston and even managed to play against Shelford Under 11's too for good measure (as the Under 11's opposition could not make it). 

Shelford 5 Royston 35

In this opening match, Royston was by far the stronger team despite a great try by Ben. Shelford really needed to get more tackles in, though the size of the Royston team was certainly a bit intimidating. Royston were also particularly good at making the ball safe, going in over the top and really pushing Shelford off the ball.  

Shelford 10 Royston 15

In this second much closer match, Shelford started to get the measure of the Royston team with much better tackling and some good team play. The two sides battled it out and with two tries scored by Michael, Shelford suffered only the narrowest of defeats. 

Shelford 10 Royston 20

Shelford 40 Royston 30; Shelford 25 Royston 45; Shelford 30 Royston 30 

Aggregate score: Shelford 95 Royston 105 

Shelford U8's last played rugby on 21 November 2010 so it was good just to get on the pitch but a bitterly cold morning and a hard pitch didn’t make things easy.  A three-match encounter against Royston soon blew away any cobwebs and warmed fingers. The first game was a close encounter but Shelford got ahead early in the game and were able to stay ahead until the final whistle with a 40-30 victory.  Joe Davies scored his third hat-trick of the season and Joshua Speechley scored two, bringing his try total for the season to 30.  The other tries came from Ethan Karpuk, Nicholas Quinton and Charlie Hurd. The second game was marred by overambitious passing and poor tagging. 

Shelford came strong towards the end of the game but were never able to close the gap, losing 25-45.  This time there was a try each for Joe Davies, Conor Caughtry, William Barnett, Joshua Speechley and Ethan Karpuk.   The final match was a much closer encounter which ended in a 30-30 draw.  Both sides put together some excellent sequences of play with some strong running, good support play and careful passing.  The game ended with an outstanding solo effort from Arthur, earning him the player-of-the-day award.  The try scorers were Joshua Speechley, Conor Caughtry, Ethan Karpuk, William Barnett, Ben Hancock and Arthur.  

Under 7’s 

Results: Shelford 5 Royston 25; Shelford 25 Royston 35; Shelford 20 Royston 25 

It had been a long time since Shelford’s last game of rugby with no chance to even train over the past 6 weeks. This showed in the first game as Shelford got off to a slow start in the first match. Royston started the score with a try followed by an equaliser from George Shannon but Royston finished the first half one try up when they scored a second try, and went on to score three further tries in the second half to give a score of 5-25 to Royston. 

In the second match Royston started strongly with 3 tries but then Shelford started to fight back with a try from Joshua Barrett and a second from Brian O’Shea. Royston scored a further 2 tries to leave the score 10-25 at half time. In the second half, Shelford really started to fight back with three tries from George Shannon to 2 from Royston to give a final score of 25-35 to Royston. 

In the final match, Shelford’s tagging improved immensely and the team continually tagged player after player to prevent tries being scored by the opposition. Despite this, Royston scored three tries before Shelford hit back with a try from Bryce Holland. Royston scored a fourth try just before half time to leave the score 20-5. In the final half, Shelford’s tactics improved again leading to 2 tries from George Shannon and one from Brian O’Shea. Royston scored one further try to give a final score of 20-25 to Royston. If the boys and girls can start their gameplay next week from where they left off this week, we will see a hugely improved score. 

Player of the day was Ruaidhri Carey.