6th April 2024 Queen's Field
Result: Aldeburgh 7 Mistley 31
Beautiful day, scrappy game, great lunch
With several key players missing, Aldeburgh’s squad had to be reinforced by loan players from Mistley who brought a very strong team and squad with them. One can only mention in passing that their first team match had been cancelled. Although Mistley appeared to have a better quality side, the game was closely fought until the third quarter.
A large, noisy crowd on the touchline, many of whom had just enjoyed the delights of the largest VP Lunch yet in the clubhouse, gave plenty of support.
The gale blew down the pitch into the Aldeburgh team’s faces for the first half. Despite the expectation that this would be a very strong Mistley team, the opening exchanges went Aldeburgh’s way. Strong running and passing took Aldeburgh deep into Mistley territory. However, it didn’t last long. A relieving kick took play back to the Aldeburgh 22. From a scrum, Mistley simply passed the ball down their back line and scored. The conversion was missed.
After 10 minutes, Mistley were penalised for a high tackle. Despite being against the wind, Ed Robson, fly half, fired a penalty deep into the Mistley 22. Loud shouts from the spectators claimed that the defender who caught the ball stepped into touch. Luckily, their pleas were ignored as, inexplicably, the ball was passed infield to Aldeburgh prop, Aaron Tuck, standing on the try line who, after a split second’s hesitation, fell over to score a try. Ed converted to take Aldeburgh into the lead for the only time in the game.
Another spilled kick led to a Mistley scrum from which again they scored from first phase ball. Their inside centre was stamping his mark on the game. The conversion gave a 12-7 lead.
Throughout the game, the referee had been strict on high tackles. He spoke to the captains about it before issuing a first yellow card to Mistley after 26 minutes. From the penalty, Aldeburgh came close to scoring another try through Toby Mann but he was held up. The drop out from under the posts went long resulting in a line out in the Aldeburgh 22, snuffing out any chance of a try.
Play was getting a little tetchy. After an altercation, which appeared to be evenly matched, Sam Mann was given a yellow. Two minutes later another Mistley player went to the bin for a high tackle followed after another three minutes by Ben Watts, captain and full back. Half time saw Aldeburgh only 12-7 down with the wind behind us. There was some optimism.
It didn’t come to fruition. After some early pressure from Aldeburgh, Mistley put together a delightful move, recycled the ball quickly and put the inside centre through again. After ten minutes, the same player put in a cross field kick which enabled their winger to gather and go over.
Aldeburgh simply couldn’t get their hands on the ball to get it to Ed Robson who could have pinned Mistley back in their half. The wind direction also became more erratic. Nevertheless, in the last half an hour there was only one more Mistley try taking the final score to 7-31.
The Aldeburgh players gave their all. There was gritty defence throughout. Special mention to Adam Hateley for his scything tackles but that’s not to take anything away from the whole team who kept going to the end.
The last two matches of the season are both away:
April 13th: Colchester 4
April 20th: Harwich