Direct Droitwich

On a chilly Portway morning more suited to November than the lip of spring, Bees stuggled to cope with frozen fingers and the kind of straight hard running that some of the older teams could learn from.

We were able to run two matches simultaneously (despite our second pitch being frozen) and we split the boys between myself and Will. My team started the day brilliantly, with some great individual and team tries, most notably Harry's first try of the day, a run from the pass-off by Jackson and quick hands by Doug and Finlay for Harry to trot straight through untouched. Even more impressive was the defensive line, which for the first time this season was an actual line, though Droitwich scored some good tries of their own, mostly coming through the aptly named Dash. A win for the Bees although I'm not sure of the final score. 1-0 Bees

Will's team however had a tougher start, struggling with both the cold freezing their fingers and a narrow pitch hastily marked out in the long grass on the soft ground next to our usual second pitch. Some simple and effective hard running by Droitwich lead to a 4-0 headstart. The boys managed to drag themselves back into the game but couldn't quite make up the difference, final score 5-10 to Droitwich. 1-1

Game two for my team was much the same as Will's first game, with the boys struggling to cope with the Droitwich hard running, some of which gave the lads a taste of whats to come in the contact next season. It was a tight match, very much tit for tat until the last few minutes where a couple of over enthusiastic Droitwich carries (one of which put Alex on his backside after a brief flying lesson) went un-penalised, (I'm sorry Geoff I couldn't bring myself to quote Jackson) lead to Droitwich taking the game 8-6. 1-2 to Droitwich.

Will's last game however was a complete turnaround, with the feeling coming back into their hands the boys passing accuracy and tagging improved hugely, with at least two 7 tag turnovers achieved, and they seemed to have learnt a lesson from the first game, bringing some direct running to compliment the squads natural dodging and jinking abilities. Despite this Droitwich were able to hold us to a 7-7 draw and took the day 2-3 in matches.

All in all a day to be proud of, our natural attacking flair was there as always, and the passing and defensive work the boys have been doing finally translated into the games.