1XV kick-off 125th Season in style !

Report from 'The Puff'

The first day of the new season was also the first of Camp Hill’s 125th season.

The day was a celebration of everybody who has been part of and continues to be part of the Club’s history, especially remembering those no longer with us.

Three full matches were played on the day, involving around 100 playing members culminating in the cup game against new divisional rivals Veseyans.

The big crowd were treated to a feast of running rugby from the home side, nine tries and an emphatic opening day victory.

It took only five minutes for Camps to take the lead when Rob Hunt, who had an outstanding game at number 8,broke clear, drew the last defender before delivering the perfect pass to Barney Edwards who scored the season’s first try under the posts. Ian Briggs made it 7-0.

The full back then made a break of his own which ended with flanker Harry Cunningham being caught just short of the line. Briggsy did convert two penalty chances to increase the lead to 13-0,the second following another break by Hunt from the base of the scrum.

From the second restart, Harry Cunningham broke free and nearly went the length of the field. His kick ahead was gathered by a Veseyans defender behind his own line and Barney was on hand to force the concession of a 5-metre scrum. As the visitors’ pack crumbled under the pressure and headed back towards their own line, the referee awarded a penalty try.

Camps completed their dominance of the first half with another well-worked try. It was Briggsy who again made the initial break, aided by a strong run from skipper Mitch Lee who provided the scoring pass to winger Jake Shilston. Another excellent conversion from Briggs made it 27-0 at the break.

Camps were immediately on the attack at the start of the second half and although Shilston was just kept from crossing in the corner,the resultant clearance kick was straight to Briggs who made another break before sending replacement winger Mark Lisle into the clear for the try.

There was no respite for the visitors as another excellent break from Harry Cunningham gave centre Dan Robinson the first of three tries.

His second came shortly after courtesy of a break by Barney Edwards and another assist from Harry to put Camps 46-0 to the good with less than 10 minutes of the second half gone.

The visitors came close to scoring when a kick ahead was regathered in the Camps 22 but he was forced out in the corner. Camps were happy to run the ball from anywhere and with a dominant pack and the combination of Stu Watts at scrum half and Rob Hunt at 8 made every scrum a potential scoring opportunity.

An excellent break by the scrum half deep in his own half gave fly half Lewis Beatty the chance to run in his first try for the Club to take the lead over 50.

Dan Robinson completed his hat trick of tries following yet another break from Harry who combined with Mark Lisle who gave the final pass.
Harry then added the cross-field kick to the end of his next break, which was inch perfect to Barney who went under the posts; unfortunately the referee felt he was marginally in front of the kicker.

There was still time for a final try, however, with Mitch”Brodie Retallick” Lee going over in the corner and, fittingly, Briggs kicking another superb conversion.

An excellent afternoon of running rugby based, as usual, on a strong performance by the pack augers well for the new season.

Next week the league action begins with a difficult trip to Wolverhampton. All support for the 3 o’clock kick-off will be welcome.