With Banbury Touch Men’s team competing at their first major tournament this weekend at Gosford Park, Oxford the odds were stacked against them. This along with the injury to Team Captain Steve Anderson meant that Daniel Button had to step up to the plate and guide the team through their first major tournament. The day started off slow with a brutal first game against Loughborough who were a very fast, organised team who put 5 touch downs past Banbury with no reply. Following defeat in the first game Banbury Men felt like they needed to improve against Oxford. With Oxford being one of the favourite teams entering the competition and having heavily defeated Banbury before Banbury felt a need to prove themselves. This match was more competitive with Banbury showing up in the early exchanges with strong handling of the ball and running the drills that had been practiced in training. This led to a try from Dave ‘Angry’ Burke and Zack Neville setting up Justin Robinson for a second to make the match 2-2 in the early stages. Unfortunately, as the match continued the fitness of the younger, fitter Oxford came into play putting another 3 touch downs past Banbury Men with the game ending 5-2 to Oxford. Although Banbury Men lost they went into their Third game with their heads held high but still with something to prove but fatigue was setting in. Game Three against the Barbarians was another Hard fought match with an excellent defensive showing from Dug Ansley and an excellent touch down from Ben Grayson were the highlights for Banbury in this match but with fatigue, tiredness and with an injury to last seasons leading touch down scorer Jason McLeod the Barbarians were able to put 7 touch downs pass Banbury and heading into their last game Banbury were feeling like there was still something to prove. Game four versus Droitwich & Harbourne came at a hard time for Banbury men with fatigue and injuries further setting in forced club coach Mark Roberts stepping up to the plate and joining the team for the final game. However, Droitwich & Harbourne were able to take advantage of the tiring team putting 7 touch downs past Banbury Men with the only response coming from an excellent team try finished off by winger Dug Ansley to make the game 7-1 to Droitwich & Harbourne. The competition was difficult for Banbury Men coming up against strong opposition throughout the day. After the tournament team captain Dan Button said “Generally speaking it was a positive tournament with loads to take away and work on. Specifically, our drive which had been good until now, so we need to recapture that and As always improve our game on the opposition 5 metre line.” However, Banbury’s Mixed gender team had a much more fortunate day at Gosford Park.
Banbury Mixed Team Wild Cats tournament 21/04/2018
Banbury’s Mixed team went into the tournament with high hopes of showing how far Banbury touch had come and hoping to show off some of the talent that the club possessed. The first match against Warwick was a hard-fought team effort with Nick Colam picking up a touchdown however Warwick managed to pull out a narrow victory 2-1 however Banbury had truly stepped up to the big stage of their first major day tournament. Banbury went into the next game feeling like they still had something to show. In the second game against Ross Touch Rugby Banbury had a very hard-fought game. This game came with some excellent individual tries with Ben Blackburn crossing the line for his first of the tournament, Pete Burke scoring from a tap off, Captain Laura Anderson leading by example with an excellent diving touch down and Olly Copp with potentially the try of the tournament for Banbury by stepping around the Ross winger and sprinting most of the pitch for the touchdown. This led to Banbury’s first win of the tournament 4-3. Game Three came up against Northampton COYS with a very challenging game for Banbury. The first score came from Ben Blackburn after a fast break by Nick Colam with excellent supporting lines for the offload to Blackburn to make the score 1-0 to Banbury early on. The game continued to be close with another touchdown from Ben Blackburn and a first touchdown for Huw Jones of Oxon Physio leaving the game 3-3 going into the final minutes. However, after several stern warnings from the referee and after an attempted slide tackle following a fast break from Pete Burke left the COYS with only 5 players allowing the space for Nick Colam to secure the win with a touchdown in the last play of the game leading Banbury to a second win of the day. The next game came up against the Midland Barbarians. During this game Banbury really stepped up to the plate putting 9 touchdowns past the Barbarians with Ben Blackburn getting a hattrick, two touchdowns each for Pete Burke and Huw Jones and both Olly Copp and Leanne Britain getting a touchdown each. With their third game being won 9-3 it meant that Banbury finished second in their group and heading toward a semi-final against the Northampton COYS. This was another closely fought affair with the teams being very evenly matched throughout, with two more touchdowns for Ben Blackburn, another one each for Huw Jones and Nick Colam leaving the game at 4-4, this led to overtime and a Mexican standoff. Banbury started with the ball but were unable to score, this gave COYS the opportunity to reply and they were able to use their experience to exploit Banbury’s defence and score and force Banbury into the playoff for the Third and Fourth place plate against Didcot. Even after the quick turn around and the heat continuing into the afternoon Banbury seemed to step up their game following the narrow defeat in the semi-finals. This combined with some competition within the team for who would be top scorer meant that everyone was up for the game and brought their A game. Huw scored the first touchdown of the game and this only increased the rivalries in the team with Pete Burke getting a further 2, Huw Jones got another and both Nick Colam and Leanne Britain got on the score sheet with 1 a piece leaving Banbury with a 6-3 victory and winning the Mixed Plate. Banbury’s top scorers for the day were Ben Blackburn, 8, Huw Jones, 6, Pete Burke, 5, Nick Colam, 4, Leanne Britain, 2, Olly Copp, 2 and Laura Anderson, 1. Coming Third in Banbury’s first major day tournament is a great achievement with captain Laura Anderson saying “we remained a strong team due to communication being brilliant in attack and defence, we supported each other too, not dwelling on mistakes. We stuck to basic passes and the two and three man drives which helped us gain ground.” Banbury will hope to continue to grow as a touch team in the future and continue to compete in major tournaments.

Wild Cats tournament 21/04/2018
Teams:
Banbury Men’s Team
Dan Button (Captain)
Steve Anderson (Team Captain)
Zack Neville
Dave Burke
Dan ‘Fingers’ Murphy
Jason McLeod
Adam Marks
Lawrence Mitchell
Dug Ansley
Ben Grayson
Emil Meyer
Justin Robinson
Tony Peace

Banbury Mixed Team
Laura Anderson (Captain)
Ben Blackburn
Huw Jones
Olly Copp
Emma Dixon
Nick Colam
Pete Burke
Leanne Britain
Charlotte Brierley
Millie Lees
Mel Beckerleg
Mark Roberts
Rachel Coyne

Written by Zack Neville