Chosen Hill 20-19 Stroud
Chosen Hill rounded off their Western Counties North home campaign with a close hard fought victory against a youthful Stroud side, with the exception of seasoned campaigners James Bashford and player coach Sam Viggers. who was introduced to the action during the second period? The home side themselves also displayed some young guns, with next season in mind; this was the opportunity to acclimatise to level seven rugby.
The home side had first use of the slope and cross wind which was used to good effect by the experienced and influential Chosen Hill outside half Andy King playing the corners at regular intervals. Stroud were prepared to have a go when in possession and after a good break up the right hand side and into the home 25 should have resulted in a try but the final pass went astray. With neither side managing to gain authority in proceedings it almost seemed at times that the first period would remain scoreless but eventually the home side crossed for a try and soon added another but with none converted the halftime score remained ten points to nil. Would this be enough?
Then second spell gave Stroud a go with the elements and only being ten points behind, probably fancied their chances and once on the score board with a converted try things looked to be going their way. Chosen hill responded again with another try, then Stroud score again to bring themselves back into contention. But then a moment of magic from the home ten Andy King, with a beautiful show and go on Stroud’s twenty five and a burst of pace to carry himself over the line for a superb try. Once again the try scorer himself could not add the conversion, but as they say “he didn’t have his kicking boots on today” in fact he must have swapped them for running spikes the way he shot through Stroud’s defence to score the try of the game. Stroud pushed forward again and managed another score which was converted to trail by a point with minutes remaining, but could not conjure any more points to cross the finish line first, so it ended with the home side taking the honours by a point with a twenty points to nineteen victory.
As part of the final home game a players re union was in full flow with none other than Mr Ian Yates the main sponsor for the event, yes Ian Yates who used to play scrum half for Chosen Hill, yes, that Ian Yates, yes definitely that one, I saw him with my own eyes, he even gave me TWO beer tokens AND they both worked!! I’m sure we’ll all pay sometime in the long run! He even produced a spectacular array of tasty delights, a kind of “picky” table with a varied selection of goodies, catering for a wide range of different tastes and just for good measure some “hot” tasters hidden amongst the offerings, just to bring people back down to earth. I also didn’t realise just how close Bob Savoury was with Yater, every time I saw Yater mining ling with the guests, there was Bob, right beside him with a beer in one hand and the other in Yaters top pocket plucking out the beer tokens. All joking aside a wonderful afternoon at Chosen Hill, thanks, even if I couldn’t stay long enough to make a dent in Yaters wallet, hopefully Steve Goode did! Great day Ian, many thanks.
Congratulations to Gordon League, coached by Nathan Carter, former Widden, Gordon League and Gloucester back row forward, who beat St Brendan’s OBs 39-7 on Saturday to gain promotion in to Gloucester Premier for next season and hopefully Old Cents will gain the necessary points to continue their National Three South West status
That’s it from me for this season, thanks for taking the time to read this column and be part of the local Rugby scene. This week, the cup semi-finals are taking place and those lucky enough to get through will battle it out on Kingsholm on Saturday 14th May with the Glanville cup starting proceedings at 11am., 2nds at 2pm and the 1st XV at 5pm so please come along and support local Rugby. Cheers Dave