Fareham Heathens and Banbury

Moving right along to the one of our split-squad matches from Sunday.

Once we all found our way through Fareham's Romulan Cloaking Device it was quite an enjoyable day - a bit longer and colder than expected, but that's April for you.

A bit of a mixed bag I suppose. Banbury were clearly a powerful bunch and very well-organized. The value of tackling low was pretty clearly illustrated - or at least the drawbacks of not fully committing to the tackle. I'll leave the coaches to pick out the good and bad examples.

At one point in the Banbury match it looked like it was turning into lineout practice. That's all very well, but maybe we can try one or two outside our 22 next time? I think the boys did very well to keep such a strong side at bay and it was only one fumble-under-pressure that finally brought us down. I think the side was starting to gel in the second half and threatened to score a couple of times.

Much less pressure against Fareham and I thought there was some good rugby - in particular a couple of very canny kicks by Albert (at least, I think that's who did it - see? we really need to get the coaches writing stuff on here!).

Photos are here:

http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/FarehamHeathens

Caption photos:

"That's the way to do it!"

"Photo Finish"

Basingstoke and Barbarians

How well those two words go together. I wonder what goes well with Winchester?

Hmm, yes...what else? Ah, of course - Winners!

Anyway - although it was a gratifying result I must admit I rather got the feeling that Basingstoke didn't really turn up, either mentally or physically. A good bit of rough and tumble, though, and the second "barbarians" match was pretty exciting.

No idea what the score was, though.

Some photos:

http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/Basingstoke

Can't resist the caption competition photo (Alistair, you can't complain - dressing like that is a clear cry for attention. Or help) :

New Milton 7s - Final and Medals

Phew - finally got down to the last few photos. This time for New Milton and Dorchester, the semi and final respectively:

http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/NewMilton7sPart3

I think everyone must have been pretty strung out by then - still a pretty furious pace, though with some impressive scorelines. Eventually Alan is going to post his match report to this blog.

Caption competition suggestions for the following, please:

"Yes, I know it's only been three minutes, but we scored another one....Yes, it was Zack.....Will took the kick....No, I didn't see which foot he used, but probably the same as last time....."

"Oooh, I can hardly lift it."

7s Photos - Second phase

OK - just time to post these before rushing off to pack and go on hols.

I have put the second and third matches (Trojans and Fordingbridge) on the photos site: http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/NewMilton7sPart2 - looking through the photos I was struck again at the "strength in depth" of the team - everyone supported every move and though we were far from the biggest team on the day we had some very determined and effective runners with great support.

I had to feel sorry for Fordingbridge, though. Even our relatively average boys out-weighed them considerably. Still, that's showbusiness.

I have also put some photos from the Colts match on http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/NewMilton7sColts - if anyone knows the Colts coach please forward the link.

Cheers, all.

Martin.

New Milton 7s

Phew - When I got home I realised I had taken over 1,300 photos that Sunday. Maybe a little excessive, still I doubt that it will take me as much effort to sort and post them as the boys spent pounding up and down the sandy pitches.

I'm waiting for Alan to pluck up courage to post on this blog the match and score reports which were relayed to him by his Trusty Scout (with a true instinct for journalism Alan has filed his report fom the comfort of the pub, relying on eye-witness accounts from his "sources").

Anyway, the first wave of photos from the Bournmouth and Ringwood matches is now at www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/NewMilton7sPartI - enjoy them while I work on the other 600 or so...

Hi, all - excuse me for pushing you all to the blog - it's just a bit easier to put comments and so forth on here rather than on the photo site.

Firstly, the photos from the Havant match are here:

http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/HavantMarch29

I have to give credit to the Havant lads: having had a really tough match in the first half during which (I think) they gained in confidence during the game they then had to watch an entirely fresh team come on to take them on in the second - very impressive that they kept their spirits up.

Still, I think we put some good moves together - and in fact I think this is the first game I can remember when both wingers scored - from some very nice team moves in both cases, as I recall. Not to mention Ollie's headlong dive and Callum's "runaway train" try up the middle.

Hmm. Caption photos - here are my two suggestions:

"Let us never speak of this again!"

(could be attributed to any of those in the picture)

And

"CHEEEEEAAAAAAARGE!!!"

And speaking of photos - not very many people have requested copies of the two team photos from earlier in the season, so I have not ordered any at all yet. In fact, to tempt you, we made another one just before the Havant game, of the whole squad this time. This time, rather than putting 6 photos online and getting you to pick your favourite I chose which was the "best" face to insert on the final composite print.

Here's the final result, which you can also find at http://www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/HavantSquadPhoto/HavantGroupComp.jpg

Let me know if you want a copy of _this_ one. I will try to remember to bring a copy along on Sunday.

That's all for now.

Cheers!

Martin.

Portsmouth U13 Plate Quarter Final

Perhaps not an auspicious one to start the new blog, but what the heck Nothing quite like thriving on adversity, is there?

Photos are at www.testvalleyphotos.co.uk/WRFC/PortsmouthFeb8

Rather challenging photographic conditions (just to take your mind off the result): the combination of white and black shirts with bright sunlight and shade was a bit challenging for the metering as well as autofocus. Apologies for the quality of some of them.

Anyway, here we go: I thought I would give this blog idea a try since:

(i) my wife is doing a blog (actually 2 of them) - so there's a certain measure of competition;

(ii) it opens up the possibility of more interaction - for example someone could write up match reports or ...

(iii) I have often thought that there ought to be opportunity for a caption competition, so with that in mind let me nominate a couple of starting photos for this game's caption competition. Assuming I can figure out how to add photos to this posting ... here goes ...

The idea by the way is that everyone gets to suggest captions. The winner gets to ... umm ... suggest some more. And so does everybody else.

Caption 1: New Winchester pre-match ritual - are things going a bit too far?

Caption 2: "The hair! Mind the hair!