Shelford 5ths 12 : 43 Letchworth 4ths + Colts (written by Richard Craddock)
 
When I said recently that I had just experienced one of the best days of my life - I was lying. Yesterday was that day. It started badly (late cry offs and my kit left in the wrong car !) however it ended with one of those moments that will stay in the memory for a long time.
A much depleted 5th team travelled to Letchworth (sorry to all those MIA's who were unavailable who missed a treat). A few changes to team layout - Pat the Tat moving into the centres ( a star ), Shaun playing in his favourite second row and NuMan Chris Mallin (Man of the Match award winner - remember to bring it next year) being asked to play full back (Crispy being held up at work , RIP Daisy ) They all had great debuts and will hopefully continue there again.

The first half was the best rugby the mighty 5ths have played all season and we pulled out all the stops to put Letchworth under pressure. The forwards were strong in possession and defence and the backs were running well with the ball and their tackling saved several tries. We suprised the opposition with our aggression and technique , they were expecting an easier game but we scored a couple of well deserved tries.
The first came from a well worked move beginning with a line out (Les played one of his best games for years and for a man in his 60's he played like a man in his late 50's !) a catch and pass and a lovely break from the author set up a forward charge followed by a lovely move between Ed 'Jazz Hands' and Tom 'Human League' Q to score well to the left of the posts making the conversion difficult ! It was described as 'devastatingly difficult' later in the pub much to everyone's amusement.

Our second try was an oppurtunist one by Jazz Hands with a delightfully weighted chip over their lines and a chase to score under the posts to make the conversion easy.

Letchworth realised they were up against a strong team and rang up the local college to enlist several Colt players - young , dumb and full of  ....attitude whose fresh legs and youthful greed made the game theirs in the last quarter. We did loose James W for ten minutes for a 'toilet stop'  -apparently if he'd been tackled again he would have lost the lot ! There were a couple of other incidents that will be written into 5th team folklore - Ed's penalty near the end that turned into an 'up and under' with Shaun having time to get under it  !! and my odd ideas on a different kind of direction for a penalty kick (I saw that the full back was out of position ).  We continued to the end but lack of subs and age got the better of us and they ran in three late tries to make for a misleading scoreline.

The effort and spirit from the whole team was excellent and we can be proud of the work if not the result. 
The after game social event was brilliant with recruitment being part of a lovely evening out on Mills Road. Ed '5 dishes ' aka 'Brother' Riches and Nu Numan Rob House Special being the highlight. Nice way to end the year and thank you for all the effort so far this season. We can look forward to more of the same and hopefully a good cup run - without actually playing a game. Have a good break and see you ALL in 3 weeks.