After a disastrous game at Chesham a couple of weeks ago this was a vastly improved performance and could still have been a win with 12 minutes to go if the luck had been with us.The hard packed mud of the pitch made letting the ball bounce a big mistake and this factor had a profound effect on the game and was the reason for at least one of the Chesham tries. A great opportunistic try and a lot of fierce tackling gave Craig Jones the man of the match but there were also good performances from both the Christies and young Maguire back with us after a break enforced by injury and in the thick of it for most of the game. The lineout was very well worked with the usual Elves leaping salmon performance at the front backed up by a brilliant display in the middle by Merrit who was plucked from the supermarket an hour before the game to fill in as a tight head . It was in this position that he really showed a lot of guts and determination as the opposition front row was extremely strong but were never allowed to dominate as they would have liked. As mentioned with 12 minutes to go and just 6 points in it Hitchin were attacking the Chesham line only to have the ball turned over resulting in a breakaway try that on balance Chesham probably deserved , but it was a bitter pill to swallow after a lot of hard graft by the Hitchin side with quite a few players putting their bodies on the line time after time. Prior to this the Hitchin points had been scored with a try poached by Craig Jones after sustained pressure on the Chesham line finally causing them to lose control and letting the ball go loose behind their own line with Craig being the first one to touch the ball down due to his great awareness and a fine burst of speed. This was converted by Christie Cauldwell who also scored with a couple of well taken penalties, this was a rare appearance by Christie as he is back at Uni now but he will always be welcome back ! The 4th team "Stalwarts " all did their bit and apart from a line kick from Simon Elves (thats you out of the front row union matey) they did everything they could to hold off a lot of sustained pressure from a strong Chesham team who despite losing their cage fighter at No 8 still had too much of an all round game for a determined Hitchin team. Christie Gilmartin showed yet again that he is a real prospect for Hitchin with a work rate and skill level that belies his young age and will definitely be playing in the higher teams before too long. Another observation I will make is that Rhino needs to learn that one big punch is a lot more effective than lots of little ones but then he did say he was enjoying the fight and wanted it to carry on longer !
Team Simon Elves, Gary Hawtin, Chris Merritt, Thomas V Corbin, Philip Elwood, Jon Harrison, Christie Gilmartin, Simon Goodlad, Chris Maguire, Christy Caldwell, Steve Shaw, A N Other, Gary Wearing, Mark Turner, Craig Jones
Subs Mel Evans
Scores T: Craig Jones (1)
C: Christie Gilmartin (1)
P: Christie Gilmartin (2)
Player(s) of Match 1. Craig Jones
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