Colts Medway 5 - 41 Shelford

The Colts travelled to Medway this Sunday; luckily the sun was shining so the long journey did not seem too bad. They got off to a slow start with many errors disrupting the game in the first 10 minutes. But once they managed to get the ball to hand the game started to liven up. The forwards kept winning ball against their big forwards and after a couple of phases quick ball to the backs opened up the spaces for Shelford’s backs to exploit. Then, for the first half it became the Caller show with Matt and Jon Caller running in a pair of tries each, 3 of which Ben Seymour converted. Just before half time the frustration felt by the Medway forwards, who could not win any ball at the break down, resulted with an unsavory incident which saw Medway reduced to 14 men for the rest of the game. After the turn around Medway missing a man seemed to help them. They showed great fortitude and effort to stay in the game. But Shelford once again scored through Tom McGinty and then Seymour. Then some indecision at the kick off saw Medway get just rewards for their efforts and score a try. Then just before the end of the game Toby Mepham scored to finish off a good mornings work. 

Under 17’s Medway 21- 18 Shelford

 Shelford lost their second successive game in uncharacteristic style down in sunny Kent. Leading 11-7 at half time with two penalties from Will Barnes and a try from Tarren Runham, the lead was extended to 18-7 with a Max Johnson try and conversion from Tom Ward. However, this was when things went wrong. Shelford’s discipline, usually their strength, let them down, this allowed Medway back into the game to score two converted tries to lead 21-18. Shelford had a penalty in the 22 which would have drawn the game at the death but elected to run the ball which was defended. 

Under 15’s Shelford 40 - Ipswich 0

Ipswich returned home without putting any points on the board. The result does not tell the full story. Shelford asserted themselves,  scoring all but one of their tries in this half - try scorers Alex Poirier, Oliver Martin and converted by Elliot Mepham. The second half started by Ipswich waking up but failing to put the ball over. Shelford spent most of the 2nd half frustrated by Ipswich’s strong defence then Shelford  seized the moment scoring again by Bengy Ruthens football skills  towards their try line and touch down by Sam Norcross.

Under 14’s Shelford 41 Bishop’s Stortford 46

Shelford & Bishop’s Stortford under 14’s gave a riot of running rugby in a 13 try thriller. Stortford started very much the stronger and quickly built up a substantial lead. A shell shocked Shelford ultimately found their feet to fight back strongly with tries from Connor Denton, Sam Porter, Lachlan Finlayson, Alex Flynn, Dan Smith, Flynn Marwood & Alasdair Kerslake. Lewis Cracknell also scored with three conversions. Shelford had given themselves too much of a mountain to climb, and just fell short of a remarkable comeback with a final score of 41-46 in favour of Stortford.

Under 12’s

This week we played Ely and Huntingdon. After a scoreless first half second row Sam Jones waltzed ShaneWilliams-like through the Ely defence to open the scoring. Further scores by James Tilbury and Joe McNeill ended Ely's resistance. Jones kicked two conversions to make the final score 19-0.
In the first half against Huntingdon Shelford moved the monster Stags pack all round the pitch and scored three scintillating tries through Stephen Douglas, GeorgeJames and McNeill. All tries were converted by Douglas. In the second half Huntingdon got their stick-it-up-the jumper game going and
rumbled over for 4 tries to run out 28-21 winners. 

Under 11’s

The U11 Premier and A teams played against Huntingdon Stages and Ely this weekend, prior to their games the two teams played each other in a warm up.  The U11’s had a squad of 26 players for the day. The U11 Premier team played Ely in their first match; they won 12 – 0 tries scored by Conor Sullivan and Connor Hein-Jones, with a conversion from Peter Gordon.  Their second game was against Huntingdon which they won 14 – 0.  Tries were scored by Alistair Russell and Dylan Myburgh with conversions from Peter Gordon and Alistair Russell. The U11 A team played well yet again and are gaining from the experience of playing as a team and learning from each other.  Their first game against a strong Huntingdon side saw them go down by a score of 12 – 0.  In their second match against Ely they boys tried hard and came away with a draw 5 – 5 with their try scored by Callum Lees. All the boys played their part in a day of great rugby.  Well Done! 

Under 10’s

Game 1  Won    Shelford 20 - 0   HuntingdonGame 2  Lost    Shelford   0 - 25 ElyGame 3  Won    Shelford 40 - 5  HuntingdonScorers on the day: Ollie Barnes 4, Edward Manning 2, George Franklin 2, Harriet Walker, Reuben Patrick, Simon Tyte, Moe Drury 1 a piece. 

Under 9’s

Shelford Under 9’s had another set of excellent results following the success of last week matches against Stamford. Shelfords opposition this morning were Ely and Huntingdon who were unable to halt our progress. Shelford Peacocks won their first game against Huntingdon 25 – 5 with 3 tries coming from Tom Cropper and Ben Frisk with Stan Clarke scoring the others. Shelford Tigers beat Ely 15 – 10 with tries coming from Thomas Gelling, Tom Whitehead and Tom Shortt who scored at the death to seal the victory.In the second games Shelford Peacocks beat Huntingdon again 20 – 0 with Tom Whitehead scoring 3 tries and 1 from Tom Cropper. In the other game Shelford Tigers finished 5 -5 against the other Huntingdon team, with Tom Whitehead getting our only try. In preparation for the County Cup next week Shelford I’s played Huntingdon’s I’s winning 15 – 0 with our tries coming from Tom Whitehead, Ben Frisk and Tom Cropper. The boys are really getting the hang of the contact game and long may it continue especially with the County Cup next week.  

Under 8’s

What a day glorious weather and some great rugby played by the under 8 squad. Always difficult to ensure everyone gets enough time on the pitch especially when one of the visiting sides only bring enough players for  just over one team. Nevertheless both sides played exceptionally well with the Senior team (A) being unfortunate in drawing twice against Huntingdon yet crossed their line more times with several disallowed tries. Shelford Under 8 (A) 45 Huntingdon 45Tries:- Harry Simpson 2 ; Luke Burnham   2 ; Hayden McKenzie  2   ; Josh Butler   1;  Will  Stephen 1  ; Angus Thomson  1. The Tag count was led by Harry Simpson and Hayden McKenzie with 9. An excellent result for Will being new to the squad but still collecting 8 tags.Shelford Under 8 (A) 25 Ely 15Tries :- Luke Burnham 2; Hayden McKenzie 3; The tag count was excellent in this game with Ely being pushed back all the time as their team were tagged before making any real ground. The tag count was led by Daniel Arbide with 7 followed by Will with 6 and Luke with 5. All players tagged the opposition a great result. Shelford under 8 (B) 30 Huntingdon 30 What I saw of the developing players was also excellent with a strong tag count as well as some solid tries for their two game draw with Huntingdon. Tries :- Harvey Redfern 1; Aidan Thomas 5; Henry Brie 1.Tag count was led by Dan Summerfield 7; Naill Ackroyd 6 and Tom Coster  and Cameran Allen with three each. Good thing was all players got at least one tag.Shelford under 8 (B) 20 Ely 25 This is an excellent result given the senior players only beat much the same team by two tries, so a great result driven by a strong tag count and some solid tries. Tries :- Aidan Thomas 3; Cameran 1.Tag count was led by Cameran with 5 & Dan Summerfield with 3. The player of the day was young Will Stephen who listened and contributed as a real team player ( backing up the experienced players and taking a higher tag count than many).  

Under 7’s

Match 1. Shelford 20 Ely 15 Match 2. Shelford 15 Huntingdon 15 Match 3. Shelford 10 Ely 20 Match 4. Shelford 25 Huntingdon 10. With an excellent turn out for this home game, Shelford under 7’s again put in a fabulous performance . Every player was responsible for strong defence and exciting attack with tags and tries for all. Each game was a closely contested with both sides putting in plenty of effort. Shelford’s travelling squad from the week before at Stamford came up with two excellent wins in the 1^st & 4^th matches. This extra week help them to take a big step forward. Many thanks to both Ely & Huntingdon, plus well done to everyone who played and we look forward to seeing you all at Ely next Sunday for the County Cup .