by Steve Douglas

Upper Clapton 17
Thames 25

SPRING felt like it was in the air at Uplands Road on Saturday, and there was a budding sense of renewal and development about Clapton's play on the field that bodes well for the last few games of the season.

Clapton started like a steam train, with some good early pressure and the forwards were punching it up hard and getting over the gain line.

From a kick over the top, the Thames full back had to scramble after a bouncing ball in his in-goal area, just getting the touchdown before a flying Richard Maskell could get there. But the promising start faded as Thames got back into the game, with Clapton being disrupted through injury and losing first Maskell and then young flanker James Hayden.

His ferocious tackling was sorely missed as Thames' big forwards started to get some go forward, and threatened the Clapton line.

A series of penalties were conceded and then a score and Clapton 5-0 down.

The home team immediately bounced back, and hit a real purple patch as the backs created space and breaks, moving Clapton swiftly up field. The forwards went through phase after phase as they made the hard yards and edged Clapton closer to the line.

After such pressure, a score just had to come and it duly did, as Baldwin took the ball up from a ruck just under the posts. Up in support was Richard Jones, who scooped the ball up and burst straight over for a well-deserved equalising try. Bryon Day made no mistake with the conversion.

Thames then hit back, but some excellent tackling from both Lee Garwood and Tim Philps held them up and stopped attackers in their tracks.

It was stirring Rorkes Drift style defence from forwards and backs that continued to keep the visitors out.

At one five-yard scrum as Thames edged forward towards the try line, the number eight picked up and dived for the line. The home crowd erupted in loud cheering as Lee Garwood and Ollie Stokes tenaciously combined to get underneath him and turn him over. The ball was rucked clear, and then kicked 30 yards down the pitch and the danger was gone.

The joy was short lived as first Clapton lost back row Richard Jones to the bin for an indiscretion at a ruck, and then Thames made numbers tell to storm over for a unconverted try.

Upper Clapton were now going through a bad patch and just before half time, Thames created an overlap out wide on the left, and with the home side running out of defenders, it was try-time and Clapton went 7-15 behind and took that score line into the break.

Clapton raged from the kick-off, it was clear that they were up for this, and were annoyed they had let in a couple of soft tries. Adam Ayres, playing only his second game back after going under the tattooists knife, was everywhere. Lee Garwood made a barnstorming break out of his 22, but the pass just failed to go to the hands of the 'thornwood express' wing Tom Roberts.

Still Clapton pressed, with Ayres continually battering defenders out of the way, as though he was giant bowling ball, knocking down skittle after skittle. A score had to come, and who should score it but the wrecking ball himself, and 'Ayresy' bundled over with 4 defenders clinging desperately to him.

They looked like limpets stuck to a World War II floating bomb! Day went very close but just missed the conversion.

Thames are a resilient and battle-hardened team, and they fought back to press upfield, and with about 30mins gone they scored again, and then followed it up with a easy penalty to lead 25- 12 going into the last 10.

Clapton played their last card, and threw their veteran back rower Dave Barker into the fray for the last 15 minutes. He showed a glimmer of the old footwork and pace, when taking a pass from the fly-half Adam Prince, he looked up to see that he was only up against an outside centre! And so off he went on a beautiful staccato run, arcing outside his man and racing through the gap.

A pass went out to wing Nick Moody, who pinged back his ears only to find a defender hanging off them as he was illegally brought to ground by a high tackle. From the penalty Clapton kicked to the corner.

Franklin, as he had done all day, found Peermamode with the throw, and up boshed the forwards towards the Thames line. The crowd started to sense something was on here, and they urged their team to go for it. The forwards ground out yard after yard, inching towards the line, and then with a last mighty effort they surged with the ball over the line.

Franklin came up with it, but Tom Procel, the heroic second row forward went down with it! Who had scored we wondered! Well after much discussion in the bar it was fair play all round, and let's give it to Lyndon Franklin!

That was it, and the whistle went. The team can take much from this game, as every facet of their play was an improvement on past games. Under the clever leadership of captain Ollie Stokes, this team looks to be one step away from really clicking.

Team: Day, Roberts, Philps, Maskell (rep Smith 12m) Moody, Prince, Garwood, Ayres, Franklin, Baldwin, Procel, Peermamode, Jones (rep Barker 70m), Hayden (rep Malia 19m) Stokes (capt)

UCFC 2nds/3rds 58
Old Brentwoods 3s 0

WITH the Extra A’s game against Hertford cancelled a mixture of Youth and experience faced a similar Brentwood’s team on Saturday.

Clapton were always too strong for their opponents and scored tries at regular intervals throughout the match. The main beneficiaries were Lobbo who’s first half cameo appearance ended with a hat trick before rushing off at half time to see Wales scrape home against bottom of the league and without a win Italy and Jailboy who also crossed for 3 tries.

It was also good to see some of Clapton’s younger generation enjoying themselves. Both Kyle McDonald and Scot Stalley scored tries and impressed all afternoon by running lots.

Although a one sided affair the game was played in a good spirit.

No games arranged for next week as the majority of the senior playing section will be sunning themselves in Portugal preparing for two International matches against Lisbon Casuals and Bolognase.

Under 12s

CLAPTON travelled to Westcliff on Sunday to take part in their last Essex festival. The boys had 3 matches in the pool stage against Maldon, Brentwood and Rochford.

The first game was against Maldon where the boys produced their best rugby of the afternoon and ran out comfortable winners by 3 tries to nil.

George Douglass, Aaron Daly and Archie Unstead all crossing the line. The second game was against pool favourites Brentwood. In a physical match Brentwood took an early lead but failed to add to it as the Clapton defence held firm.

The boys then drew level minutes into the second half when George Douglass intercepted a pass to make for a grandstand finish. Unfortunately for the club Brentwood upped their game and scored two more tries in the last couple of minutes.

The boys then faced Rochford straight after the Brentwood game and couldn’t maintain their early form and went down by three tries to nil.

This meant an Ashtray semi final against South Woodham Ferrers, thoughts about mixing forwards and backs and throwing the game so everyone could make it back to the club in time for the England game were eventually quashed and the club went out at full strength. The boys again produced some good running rugby to overcome Woodham by three tries to nil.

Aaron Daly opened the scoring followed by James Butler and Kyle Howard.

Final game of the afternoon was against a strong Chelmsford side who were technically stronger and ran out three nil winners.

It was a good day and for a change played in lovely weather.

The MOM award went to Felix L-F who made tackle after tackle.

Next week the boys are training at home.

The U10s

THERE was disappointment at the Essex Festival at Westcliff as the U10s found themselves in a tough group.

This age group normally does well at this event and has a track record of reaching at least the semi-final stage of either of the top two competitions that are run on the day.

This year they had been lined up against Westliff, Braintree and Chelmsford during the qualifying round-robin stage of the tournament and knew they were faced by a hard set of matches.

Westcliff were first up and although the hosts won 15-0 Clapton were not outplayed but were undone by two long range tries as Westcliff broke out from deep in their own half after periods of Clapton pressure.

Chelmsford were next and again it was close and Clapton did not get the luck they had earned through their hard work and they lost this one 10-0.

Braintree - probably the strongest team in the group - provided opposition for the third game and again the boys worked very hard and played some of their best rugby of the day but just could not stop falling to a 15-0 deficit.

Again, Braintree's scores came from breaks out from defence as is so often the case at this age. Then, at last, Clapton finally got some of the reward they deserved when Alec Parris broke from the back of a ruck to outpace the defenders and score Clapton's only try of the group stage.

The Vase Semi-final saw Clapton pitched against Romford and Gidea.

Clapton started brightly and had two tries disallowed before their third attempt was given. Romford bounced back to equalise before Clapton again took the lead.

In the second period it was Romford that scored first and then in the dying seconds pounced on a knock on to turn over possession to secure what turned out to be the winner.

All of the boys were disappointed with the results but none of the defeats stemmed from a lack of effort.

As usual the squad played for each other and maybe with a little more luck they could have progressed further than they did. This was just not to be their day.