Another game of 2 halfs against Yatton. Captain Paul "80 mins" Dempsey chose to go down hill with the wind for the 1st half, I assume to blow Yatton out of the water with a blitz of tries. We did mange 3 in the half, but a 4th was begging. Preparation was good, taking only 1 phonecall to arrange Ball, Bottles and Kit, all other thoughts were easily focused on the game. Whitehall's main goal was clearly just to win the game first, anything else is a bonus, to ensure safety in the League. We even had our own Barmy Army travelling in style Via the Train to watch this momentous game. Weather and conditions were also good, with Yatton having a very wide and dry pitch. As we were waiting for Jermaine from the changing rooms, only 10 mins late this time, we looked for a good warm up. Team was buzzing well, support from the players and the Barmy Army, the feeling was good from everyone. Plan was to kick to the corners and gain teritory and put pressure on Yatton. This was working for a long time and Whitehall seemed to be camping on Yatton's try line for a long period. Pressure was kept on but unforced errors and ill discipline allowed Yatton to escape. After recieving a Penalty from the ref, "80 mins" Dempsey decided on 3 points. Channon, who is in charge of HIS kicking tee, left it in the changing rooms, but with the no blame policy issued earlier in the year, decided to blame everyone else for this mistake. Old school digging for a mole hill to place the ball on was issued, Channon missed :o( Scrummaging and Lineouts were solid throughout the game, and it was from a Scrum that allowed Whitehall their first try. Ball at the back, with the front 5 giving everything 5 yards out, Yatton were under pressure so the ref had no choice to allow a Penalty Try. Def one for the pack, but badger will clearly try and claim it after putting the ball over the try line himself ;o) Channon, who now had his trusted tee, where apparently he had to wait for 3 months on a waiting list to get it specially made from China (training cone), converted the extras 14-0. Our second try came from open play with forwards and backs combining with great hands (and skill) with ball in hand. Running from a turnover ball, it was fed along to Black Lomu (Jermaine) who powered through tackles and managed to offload to Steeeeeeve Lowden. Steve taking 2 Yatton players with him who thought they were pushing him out (with the ball) 3 metres from the try line. As it happened Steve was watching us backs warm up in touch rugby earlier and saw some of our 7's style handing. With that, Steeeeve pulls a one handed reverse pass to Weaver, who in turn kept it alive (as he's being tackled) with a Netball floating pass to Ryan England, who knows exackly where the try line is and barrelled his way through to touchdown (with about 3 Yatton players on top of him). Channon added the extras 14-0. With more and more pressure building Whitehall were looking to get the bonus point by half time, knowing that the second half was going to be hard. But, we only managed to get one more before the half, again coming from Ryan England. A rolling maul had been made, yards being gained by the forwards, Yatton desperately trying to break it up, managed to slow it down. For some reason the blind side was free from Yatton players, and with Ryan's head stuck up someone's ass in that rolling maul knew this and decided to run in his second try untouched 15 yards to the line. Haven't seen anything like that since Matt Dawson in 1997 against South Africa for the Lions (remember it)?, just without the audacious dummy and 5 South African players taking said dummy! LOL. Channon, just wide of the posts ( one for you Kev ;o) 19-0. Second half was more about the running rugby and maintaining a solid defence to hold off any counter attack from Yatton. We did so for about 15 mins, but with the amount of pressure from Yatton holes were being made in our defence. They scored from some good pick and go from their forwards, and with 10 metres from our line a Yatton player picked up and went blind, slipped a couple of tackles and touched down 19-7. Yatton were given a couple of kicking penalties to add points, but Yatton's number 9 managed 1 out of 2 kicks for a come back score of 19-10. still trying to think of it now, but I can't remeber Yattons second try (answers on a post card please), so score line is now 19-15. Yatton as a club were now thinking comeback victory, even the Barmy "pissed up" (by now) Army were quiet. We needed that 4th try, not just for the bonus point, but also to quash any feelings the Yatton players had of winning this game. And it almost came from our England Hero (no not Jack), Ryan. Penalty was given to us, kicked to the corner, time ticking away, catch and drive. Yatton again, trying to disrupt and break it up. Channon was given the call to use it by the ref, but as it happens, Connor (for some reason was in the rolling maul) broke away, made some good yards, off loaded to Ryan who again was steam rolling anyone who got near him, was brought down a foot away from the line (with about 3 or 4 Yatton bodies on him or in his wake)! LOL. Got very close to his hatrick and that important 4th try bonus point. As it was, that was the game over and victory to the mighty Whites (not a racist comment). We are looking safe now, but with 5 games left and B'tol Harl and Stroud at home, we can make it safer ;o)

SMS Award (small man syndrome)- Not Bish, but Tommy Tobin for a. allowing the Oak in Staple Hill not to serve us anymore and b. me getting a bitch slap from a Barton Hill player (I think) who Tommy was starting on! Cheers kid.

Taxi Award- goes to Dave Jones, Whitehall asking Dave to go on the bench against Yatton and not getting on. But at least the other players got there on time! LOL

Comments and views welcome. STARTS AT TRAINING BOYS!