Under 18's

LV U18's Cup - Shelford 55 Wellingborough 12 (report written by a spectator)

First of all, we were all sitting in the clubhouse keeping warm as Lewis Green had told his mum the KO was delayed by 20 mins!! Hence we missed the first part of the game.

Anyway once we got outside, into the blustery outdoors the boys had already kicked off and had scored 2 tries and a bit. The scorers were Lewis Green and Ben Doughty, James Murdoch converted. 12-0 The boys looked like muddy hippos as they ran around the pitch, lots of washing for their mums this week!

Perry ran like a gazelle and, after a little catching and throwing Callum Miller picked up the ball and ran straight to score under the posts, which was converted by James M again 19-0. Wellingborough had a throw in near our line, we caught it and James Murdoch kicked to clear but it was blocked and picked up by Alex Long who kicked it soooooo hard it went over their try line, but as its not football this doesn't count as a try! :(
Flynny went on a run offloaded (please note this tech term) to Harri who then passed back to a charging rhino Flynny who crashed through to score, James Murdoch converted again. 26-0

Wellingborough had the ball kicked it off near our try line, they scored from the lineout, no conversion. 26-5

After a tussle, Shelford got stopped in their tracks and they all had a cuddle (or scrum), the ball was blowing around really high like in a game of netball, but Lewis Rawlings caught it and ran over the line to score but in doing so landed on a rather delicate part of his body. 31-5

James Clare caught the ball ran with it, another charging rhino, looked to offload but decided to keep running and scored in the corner. Perry held the ball while James Murdoch kicked for conversion but slipped in the mud and landed on his bottom! 36-5

Straight after Flynny ran 2 thirds of the pitch to score near the posts, was quite a nice little run actually. James M scored conversion. 43-5. Half time

Wellingborough came out this half like raging lions and scored straight away and converted. 43-12

Lewis G did a lovely off-load out of the tackle and popped the ball to Toby Poirier who ran like the wind down the line to scored try, no conversion this time. 48-12

Harri Beasley did a cheetah like run down the wing only to be tackled 2m from their line!!

For quite a while there was lots of activity at the wrong end of the pitch unfortunately due to me chatting to Jenna I missed quite a bit! Oops.  This is when I missed Mr Perry getting sin binned for hands in the ruck! Mr Perry keep your hands to yourself in future.

Wellingborough had more of the play this half prob due to the wind. Lewis Green had another little run and scored under the posts James Murdoch converts. 55-12

Under 11's

Shelford 14 Royston 21

Shelford fielded a slightly depleted squad against a well-disciplined and powerful Royston side. After a well fought promising first match, Shelford suffered a major defeat in the cold and wind.

Tries from Jack Knight and Ben Whitehead were converted by Jack Knight and Bart Lowden respectively before Royston hit back with a converted try before half time.

Royston scored again immediately after the break, the conversion bringing the scores level. Royston stole it at the death when a miskick was charged down in the middle of the pitch and despite two big tackles on the line the try was scored and converted.

Shelford 0 - Royston 52

Royston raced into a four-try lead before half time in the second fixture, three of which were duly converted. The pressure continued to pile on Shelford in the second half, the fifth and sixth tries arriving and converted comfortably. The inevitable seventh score, when it arrived, wasn't converted and Royston wrapped an emphatic victory with a converted eight try right at the death.

Shelford 5 - Royston 35

The final match was played as a shorter match without conversions, Harry Fennel opening the scoring for the home side before Royston hit back twice before the break. Royston romped to an emphatic win with five further tries as the sun finally came out to warm up players and spectators on this gusty morning.

Full credit to the lads for agreeing to play the third match after the heavy defeat in the second, despite the strength of the opposition bearing down on the Shelford team, the enthusiasm to keep going remained which shows the spirit within the team.

Under 9’s

Aggregate score:  Shelford 120 Royston 40

Shelford Vikings 35 Royston 20 Tries: Ethan Karpuk. Joe Davies (3), Joshua Speechley (3)

Shelford Dragons 30 Royston 20 Tries: Charlie Boyle (2), Harry Punshon (3), William Gelling

Shelford Peacocks 30 Royston 0 Tries: Alex Budenberg, Freddie Stevenson (3), Hugh Tomkys, and Charlie Hurd

Shelford ‘B’ 25 Royston B 0 Tries: Speechley (2), Ben Colman (2), and Karpuk      

Shelford ‘A’ 0 Royston ‘A’ 0

For their first home fixture of 2012 Shelford U9s entertained Royston at the Davey Field.  Strength in numbers meant that Shelford were able to put out three strong mixed-ability teams for their first three games, with all three games ending in Shelford victories.  The first game was a 35-20 win for Shelford with hat-tricks from Joe Davies and Joshua Speechley and one touch-down from Ethan Karpuk.  The second game was a 30-20 victory for Shelford with a hat-trick from Harry Punshon, 2 tries from Charlie Boyle and 1 try from William Gelling.  The third game was a convincing 30-0 victory for Shelford with a hat-trick from Freddie Stevenson and further tries for Alex Budenberg, Hugh Tomkys and Charlie Hurd.

The ‘B’ teams then met and Shelford again proved too strong in a one-sided 25-0 victory with two tries each for Joshua Speechley and Ben Colman and a final touch down for Ethan Karpuk.  The final game of the day brought together the ‘A’ teams, which was a much closer encounter ending on a 0-0 draw.

With an aggregate 120-40 win and 4 wins and a draw from 5 games the Shelford players should be pleased with their efforts.  For their considerable efforts on the day, Seb Clatworthy and Harry Punshon were named players of the day.

Under 8's

Aggregate: Shelford 110 – 60 Royston

Shelford Sharks 35 Royston A 5

Shelford Lions 15 Royston B 10

Shelford Sharks 15 Royston B15

Shelford Lions 15 Royston A10

Shelford Sharks 15 Royston A 15         

Shelford Lions 15 Royston B 5

Shelford U8s played at home for the first time in nearly 2 months today on what turned out to be a very blustery morning. Our opponents were Royston who we had only played the week before at Wendens Ambo.

The Sharks were awake before the opposition today (this was a first and must have been down to all the cobwebs being blown away by the strong wind ;-) ) and finished their first match 35 to 5  with trys from Harvey Taylor, Toby Owers and Tom McFarlane and two trys each from George Shannon and Joshua Barrett. In their second match, the opposition had found their stride and Shelford were held to a 15 all draw  with trys from George Shannon, Harvey Taylor and Joshua Barrett. In their final match, some strong attacks from both sides saw the final score again a 15-15 draw with a try scored by Vinnie Allan and two by Tom McFarlane.

The Lions forgot to hold their defensive line in their first match and Royston kept the pressure to reach the try line twice. Some fast runs down almost the entire pitch by Thaddeus Glass resulted in two trys and a further try from Theo Hay resulted in a final result of 15-10 to Shelford. In their second match the Lions again made things tough for themselves but persisted in their attack to finish the second game 15-10 with a superb run  and try from Ruaidhri Carey and tries from Thaddeus Glass and Brian O’Shea. In their final match some mistakes lost Shelford two trys right on the try line but they fought back from these mistakes and finished the match 15-5 with a try from Ben Smith and two from Thaddeus Glass.

Player of the day was Ruaidhri Carey for a superb pick up from a dropped opposition ball and a run down the length of the pitch to score a try.

Under 7’s

Aggregate Score: Shelford 165 Royston 155

Shelford Tigers 40 – 40 Royston

Shelford Tigers 40 – 40 Royston

Shelford Tigers 20 – 15 Royston

Shelford Sharks 25 – 25 Royston

Shelford Sharks 20 – 15 Royston

Shelford Sharks 20 – 20 Royston

Shelford fought out six very tight matches against their opponents from Royston today but just managed to prevail. There were four draws and two wins, each win by just one try to sum up how evenly fought all the games were.

In their first two games Shelford Tigers and their Royston counterparts were certainly in the mood to score some tries, each of the first two games finished 8 tries a piece. In their first match the Tigers’ tries came from Monty Lovell, Joseph Taylor and then two hat-trick heroes in Billy White and Alex Illingworth. In their second 8 all thriller, the Tigers scorers’ were one from Ben Carey, two from Lewys Hines and Alex Cross and this time the hat-trick came from Marcus Moscuzza. In their final game the Tigers managed to just claim that elusive victory winning by 4 tries to 3.  Their scorers’ were Taylor, White, Illingworth and Cross.

In their close fought games against Royston the Sharks opened up with a 5 all draw. The try scorers were Fergal Riordan, Tyler Bennett, Henry Sperring and two tries from Tom Birkby. In their second match the Sharks recorded their closely fought win of the morning winning by 4 tries to 3. Their scorers were Sefi Dinar, Charlie Walters and another brace from Birkby. In their final game the Sharks played out another enthralling draw which ended four tries a piece. The scorers were one each from Harry Calcott, Ben Ward Hunt, Sperring and Birkby.

Players of the day were Alex Illingworth, Matthew Monie and Harry Calcott.