FOR 56 years Manor Park RFC has proudly existed as the ‘third team in a small town’.
While memories and friendships aplenty have been created and a handful of promotions secured – only one first team knock-out trophy has been secured in all those years.
Although Park went into Sunday’s final as favourites over Claverdon, the quiet pressures were there in the minds of players and supporters alike.
Would it all come together? Would the game be over refereed and become a farce? Would Claverdon produce a herculean performance and ruin the day?
This youthful, fast and fit Manor Park side never looked like losing this encounter at Broadstreet RFC – even if they left a few scores out there on the pitch.
There were so many combinations out on the pitch which are steeped in rugby friendship, from the young front row and best-friend pairing of Adam Moore and Stephen Ballard, to Dan Joyce and Chris Goode - whose rugby journey together began at mini rugby as toddlers - right through to the evergreen duo of 40-somethings Dick Andrews and Matt Marston – who played in Park’s last cup success nearly 20 years ago.
Opportunities to win silverware do not come along often in rugby union.
Josh Carvell, in his first full season of senior rugby, now has a winners medal he can put on his mantelpiece as recognition and reward for giving rugby his all. Many careers come and go without tasting tangible glory.
On a sun-kissed but chilly Sunday afternoon, Park set all of the early pace and were knocking on the door for the game’s first score.
It came in the eleventh minute with some sublime forward and backs play.
Scrum-half Will Woodward span from the base of a ruck triggering the backs as Callum Bishop set Joe Graham free on a blistering angle through the Claverdon midfield.
His offload out the tackle to Cameron Forryan allowed the full back to put master finisher Jonny Hincks in the corner for the try – his ninth in 11 games.
Minutes later and they were back for more with Gaz Hammond carrying powerfully into the 22. Woodward drew a handful of tacklers on the drift before spinning to Bishop.
Simon Hall smashed a hole through the middle and popped to Dan Joyce to dance around an onrushing defender to score to the right of the posts.
All-action flanker Dave Melville went close to scoring a try only for a fantastic cover tackle to deny him.
Bishop extending the lead to 13 points minutes before half-time with a penalty kick in the middle of the Park.
Claverdon kicked a three pointer of their own soon afterwards – cutting the deficit to ten points and give them hope going into the interval.
Melville stripped Claverdon of the ball at the breakdown on the 22 and set up a driving maul.
Woodward and Bishop combined once more for Joyce to capitalise on a dog-leg in the defence to sprint home into the right corner for his 16th try of a prolific campaign.
Claverdon, just as they did at the Griff and Coton in the league encounter last year, fought back and never let Manor Park pull away from them.
But some stellar defensive work, especially from Melville, denied them a score to get back into the game.
It wasn’t until the 66th minute when the game’s next score arrived.
Centre Jordan Rice claimed a high ball from a skewed kick and popped to captain Chris Goode to surge down the middle of the pitch.
The prop’s deft offload on the ten-metre line freed Forryan to sprint away and dot down underneath the cross bar for his 12th try of the season.
Again Claverdon came knocking through their forwards and powerful midfield carries and with eight minutes to go, they were five metres from the line.
However, Goode stripped the tackled player and popped down the blindside to Charlie Wilson.
The second rower romped forward to just outside the 22 before releasing Graham to race away for a 70-metre try – his 18th and perhaps best of an incredible campaign.
Park were leading 30-3 and Venus emptied his bench to give all seven substitutes the chance to play a part in a cup final.
Twice in the space of four minutes Claverdon scored tries, firstly through impressive inside centre Tim Westmacott and then his fellow midfield man Tom Johnson capitalised on a loose ball from a messy scrum.
The Vase was in the bag – but it was Claverdon who were finishing stronger.
Perhaps aggrieved by this late slackening of standards, Manor smashed their way forward and backed their pack to make some hard yards with Stephen Ballard a constant wreaking ball presence.
It was almost inevitable who the scorer would eventually be.
Having played in Park’s Warwickshire Shield final win in the late 1990s, alongside current coaches Venus and Steve Ross, it was Marston who picked up from close range to sniff out a poacher’s try. His knowing smile afterwards said it all.
Bishop boomed over a tricky conversion to bringing to an end an entertaining, well-competed and well refereed encounter between two teams who added much-needed credibility to Warwickshire’s knock out competitions.
The celebrations were loud and joyous – but there are bigger things on the horizon for this squad of players.
With a 16-point lead over second-placed Upton-on-Severn and with four games remaining, the Midlands 4 West South title is tantalisingly in reach.
Their first opportunity to secure a league and cup double comes this Saturday – at local rivals Atherstone who have won five out of their last six games and with a clutch of returning, experienced players in their ranks will be far sterner proposition than the side Park thumped 52-0 in December.