Chough's Derby Double over Hammers!

In our second season at the dizzy heights of Middlesex Merit Div 1 we have secured our first league double, beating local rivals Hammersmith and Fulham both home and away and taking our tally to 6 wins in the league, equal to the win tally from the whole of last season with 7 games still to play.

Starting the game at our surprisingly good condition reserve ‘stadium’ near the A3 our pre match warm-up included the usual slow paced game of touch and testing our kicking accuracy by booting dog sh** off the pitch at the far end of the field.

Leader of the H&F rebellion Dan Masters brought along three more ex-hammers to boost a talented Chough’s squad and great additions to the club they all look to be.

The Chough’s 2014 / 15 vintage may not have quite the flair of previous years but the current crop are more than a match for any team in this league up front. The current pack are a scary proposition for most teams, even if it is just their overall poor hygiene or the sight of JJ’s white vest pre game.

A back row of Soskin (pictured), Forster and Brading and star of ITV’s Take Me Out, Will Drake on the bench finally released the devastating pace of the skipper to the backs and the outside centre channel.

LCRFC’s resident referee (reffed last three games) Paul Palmer, oversaw the coin toss, promptly lost and the Chough’s were receiving and playing into a relatively strong breeze.

(As usual please don’t expect any accuracy in the following report!)

For a team that allegedly trains (our new spies tell us) Hammersmith played a pretty one dimensional game which involved their forwards picking and going about 30 times in a row and getting absolutely nowhere against our experienced pack. When it did get to their backs they usually miss passed or chipped it over our backline to fullback Thom Lang. Our strength in set pieces and disciplined defence (helped with me being out of the pack!) ensured the 7 fans (some may call them subs) didn’t get much champagne rugby.

The Cornish defence was broken first when one of the aforementioned chipped kicks was received by a clearly offside H&F player to run into the corner and score. A good conversion was slotted through the posts. 0 – 7 H&F after 20 mins.

This lucky ‘Try’ was what was needed to galvanise the Chough’s and we finally started keeping the ball in our hands a bit more. Some big Cornish crashed balls and some ill-discipline from the oppo saw the Hammers 13 binned (Happy Days!) and Cornish started putting on some real pressure within their 22. General Lindsay back where he belongs, bossing his back row from 9 in the Choughs’.

A couple more fouls that should have resulted in another card or a penalty try eventually resulted in a Cornish scrum driving all the way over with Brades at 8 touching down for the try.

Our rotating kicker policy (No Polly I will never let you take a conversion!) saw Shorty effortlessly pulling the first wide, 5 – 7.
After this my memory goes pretty hazy, a load more rugby happened in which we were better than they and at some point Brades doubled his tally, conversion solidly missed by new flyhalf Tom Alderwick. Half-Time 10 – 7.

Half-time brought on two fired up forwards in Dan Masters (2nd Row) and Drakey (Back Row) replacing the more hungover than injured Forster and Coates. The Skipper selflessly subbing himself to by replaced by 3rd debut boy Ben Harknett at 13.

As I chatted sh** on the sidelines the Chough’s flew out of the blocks in the second half. Ali Lindsay spotting George North lookalike Rob Lawley out wide and the big winger, back from injury, shrugging off several tackles and running a decent few yards to score a good try in the corner. Alderwick keeping with tradition and missing the conversion. 15 – 7.

Cornish never looked like being breached, with good tackles and strong defence across the pitch and the game stayed tight for a while following this early try. One notable incident saw some clear hattrick avoidance; a Brading break inside the oppo’s 22 with one man to beat, saw a back handed offload going to the opposition back row who ran 60 yards down the pitch but was impressively caught and tackled by Shorty.

Soon after, a Cornish break was passed to Fly-half Tom Alderwick, who stepped his opposite man and ran through for another well taken try. Lawley stepped up for this conversion and slotted it through!

More subs saw myself back on the pitch in place of Brades and debut boy number 4 and Chough’s player number 79 of the season Nick Powell come on for Ali Lindsay at 9. Coatesy was also soon back on the pitch to replace Soskin.

With 15 minutes remaining my favourite moment of the game occurred. JJ’s opposite man who had been having a torrid time all game with their scrum moving backwards yelped and pulled out of a scrum after the engagement. Asked whether he was ok by the ref. In a high pitched broken voice not really befitting a bearded prop, he replied ‘No I’m not alright’ holding his side and throwing all of his toys out of the pram. ‘He keeps trying to hurt me’.

Some late pressure was well extinguished by the Chough’s defence and the game ended on a Rich Parsons, yes Rich Parsons clearance kick…… What is it with Front row thinking they are flyhalfs?

Good result, and although we remain in 6th place in the league winning our game in hand would put us 3rd.

Squad.

Moore, Parsons, Pollard, Coates, Stock, Soskin, Forster, Brading, Lindsay, Alderwick, Summers, Short, Newton, Lawley, Lang, Drake, Masters, Harknett, Jones, Tovey, Powell

MOM – Brading & JJ Moore

D.O.D – Rich Parsons (Far too much time in the 10 Channel!)

#upthechoughs