Maldon V Woodford

What a fantastic day was had by all today, a scenic venue, a friendly and sporting environment to play in and generous hosts, just ask the kids who tucked into the complimentary Sausage, Mash & Beans followed by Chocolate cake & Ice-Cream, all gratefully received in a clubhouse that looks like it dates back to the Tudor era, wow!!!

But back to the all important stuff, Woodford fielded two un-streamed teams to face the two un-streamed Maldon teams.

Woodford Purples lined up with: Lennon Tidmarsh, Felix Banks, Nathan, Owen & Caitlin Morris, Barney Hurd, Luke Fox, Bryn Elliott, Victoria Bean, Rory Chick & Lewis Walcott.

Woodford Oranges lined up with: Oliver Smallshaw, Finley Jacobs-Roth, Guy Wales, Dan Simpson, Domingo Lapadula, George Taylor, Ben Sharratt, Souhail Ferdjoukh, Nathan McCutcheon, Declan Comas & Zavier Sampat.

WOODFORD PURPLES V MALDON BLUES
As per usual a slow start once again for our guys which resulted in a 1-2 (5-10) defeat, Woodfords’ try coming from the ever dependable hands of Barney Hurd who once again excelled in the role of vocal leader of our team. We just let ourselves down a little bit in the ruck but I’m sure Ed wont rest until it’s perfected in training.

WOODFORD ORANGES V MALDON WHITES
A fairly even match in many ways including the 2-2 (10-10) scoreline. The two Woodford scorers were Oliver Smallshaw & an amazing solo run from Domingo Lapadula.

WOODFORD PURPLES V MALDON WHITES
A much more convincing performance this time from the purple team who ended up with a fine 4-1 (20-5) victory. The march towards glory was started by Bryn Elliott whose devastating break from the half way line, for what looked like his debut try, was tantalisingly ended inches from the line by some frantic defending by the Maldon boys, only for the ball to pop out straight into the arms of the waiting Lewis Walcott to put down over the line. This was followed by two tries for Nathan Morris who seemed to finally listen to his fathers despairing screams (guilty as charged!) to run in a straight line, with the final blow once again being delivered by Barney Hurd.

WOODFORD ORANGES V MALDON BLUES
Another scoreline for the luckless Oranges which didn’t really reflect the quality of the Woodford showing. A 1-2 (5-10) defeat was grudgingly taken despite some really great and encouraging work put on display by our under 9’s. A try for the high scoring Declan Comas was not the only bright spark to be gleaned from this match, some cutting sniping runs from Ben Sharratt at scrum half, coupled with solid rucking by Nathan McCutcheon & Dan Simpson should have given us much more to cheer about.

WOODFORD PURPLES V MALDON BLUES
A rematch of our first game of the day, but this time a very different outcome. A by now flowing Purples eased to victory with a 3-1 (15-5) win. Two superb tries from Lewis Walcott and yet another from Barney Hurd rounding off his hat-trick for the day and the record of scoring in every game today. Obviously it’s not all about scoring, some fierce and commited play in the tackle by Luke Fox, Owen Morris & Lennon Tidmarsh helped us to hold onto our deserved score-line and to return the days figures of Won 2/Lost 1.

WOODFORD ORANGES V MALDON WHITES
I think the Oranges just ran out of steam for this final encounter of the day and ended up going down 2-5 (10-25) to a team they had drawn against and should have beaten earlier in the day. Two superb solo tries from Declan Comas were not enough to prevent this defeat but a stunning performance by Oliver Smallshaw more than made up for the disappointment of the result. Olivers tackling and commitment was truly immense, I lost track of the amount of challenges he put in, not just in this match but week in week out. He is consistently improving and is now regarded as one of our most talented players. A well deserved Man of the Match award goes to Oliver today.