Mayfair Occasionals 29 - 26 Teddington

An excellent 29-26 win on the weekend, well played everyone. Here's the story of the match:

For the long-serving Occie, the season so far has brought about a couple of new experiences - not only did everyone arrive hideously early (for an away game too!), but for the 3rd week running we also had a full XV and loads of subs.

For the second time this season our early arrival, and the delayed kick off, gave us time to do a full team warm up, which I'm sure is against some unwritten Occie law and worse still belies our Occasionals tag (but I'm sure Calvert will suffer sufficiently at our Christmas do).

So the game kicked off and followed the exact same pattern as the week before, against Sutton & Epsom. We scored 2 quick tries, 1 after some good work by the forwards and backs, which saw Snook dive over for his 1st and then right from the kick off Suki gathered his own chip ahead and some good interplay saw Tom Clarke score. Buoyed by our early dominance we promptly went to sleep and conceded 2 soft tries. The half time score was locked at 12-12 which, considering we absorbed a lot of pressure in the latter part, wasn't a bad turnaround for us.

Our normal failing is to go to sleep for 10-15 minutes after halftime but this week was different because we were already asleep and our general malaise continued. Teddington scored another converted try in this period and took the score to 19-12.

As we woke from our slumber, our infrequent passages of play with the ball in hand became a little more frequent and Snook managed to barge his way over for his 2nd. We were still behind but realising that game was not beyond us we finally came to life. When we managed to get the ball in hand we continually made good yards with some good interplay but let ourselves down with a sloppy pass or were on the end of another iffy decision from the ref.

Having got the score back to 19-17 we let Teddington in for another converted try. Trailing by 9, and with around 10 minutes left, some good driving in the wider channels from the forwards and some good link play in the backs took us in to Teddington's 22. With the Teddington backs flying up, a cross field kick from Huw was gathered by Gareth, he drew in the defence before sending Jonny over for another try. The kick went over and we trailed by 2.

With out tails firmly up, we went straight back down field from the kick off only to be penalised by some more dodgy refereeing. A few more incursions in to their half went the same way but, not to be deterred, some more slick passing and strong driving took us in to the 22. Quick ruck ball resulted in the backs working the overlap and Kris went over in the corner. The conversion hit the upright but our lead was 3 with 3 minutes left.

After the re-start, a penalty on half way gave Teddington 1 last chance to pinch the game but, after a couple of lineouts and scrums, our defence held firm and the final whistle went to give us a really hard fought win.
So, to the real story.....

Good
A strong squad.
Great debuts from Boris and Joycey.
Suki's moment of magic with a chip over the head of his opposite man, re-gathering and then off-loading for our second try in 3 minutes... Sadly this was quickly followed by a devastating blow as Suki broke a rib after being a) smashed in the tackle by the oppo b) tackled by a blade of grass c) just falling over - you decide (then try and discuss it with him!).
Boris and Snook making just about every breakdown and somehow still being around to take crash balls off 10.
People playing out of position or multiple positions because of injury (OJ - wing, Calvert - centre, Jonny - centre, wing, fullback!).
Another flange-burger (cross field kick) from Huw resulting in another try in the corner.
Some strong running and 2 more tries from Snook... just missing his hat-trick of hat-tricks.
Kris and his Hollywood finish with a last-minute touchdown (any concerns about his grounding of the ball were vanquished by his convincing "Woo-hoo!" celebration).
Despite the referee being quite frustrating, there was no niggle and both teams played
the game in a great spirit.

Bad
An expensive game for injuries; Suki, Huw, Kris, Joycey. Hope you all have speedy recoveries.
Teddington requesting an early game and then showing up late.
CJ's last game for a while as he and the family are moving back to Glos - you'll be missed.
Back chat to the ref - regardless of how bad he was it doesn't help and it seems to be getting worse.
Th oppo's re-starts - three people managed to miss one restart in the 2nd half.
Some loose kicking by a few people when ball in hand was the better option.

Funny
Calvert claiming his knock-on was off his face... I'm not sure why you'd choose a falcon over a knock-on but he appealed for it passionately.
Calvert claiming said knock on was Huw's fault for 'passing the ball too hard'.
Santa being told "cut your hair, f@g" by their 17 year old fly-half.
The pride on OJ's face as he beat said 17 year old in a MOM pint downing.
Boris's kick to touch that put our hearts in our mouth... fortunately knocked on by the wing and leading to a line-out in a great position.
Harry Santa asking Pagey if anyone had told him he looks like Mitch from Modern Family.
The Page's sporting matching father and son beards.
The ref allowing Santa to call the ball out of the scrum while it was still in front of the
number 8's feet.
Harry turning up in a cracking pair of red trousers which must have reminded Pagey of someone significant from back in the day, as he fondly called him 'Rhys' all the time.
With time running out, and us behind on the scoreboard, OJ sprinting back on to the pitch, tripping and face-planting, much to the amusement of the 2 delightful blondes watching.
Calvert not being sure whether we wanted the game to carry on or not when we had an injury as Snook had the ball and looked like he might score.

DOD - (somewhat contentiously, according to him) Suki

MOM - OJ (and not for his exploits on the wing)