13th April – Colchester
Result: Colchester 17 Aldeburgh 41
End of season friendly in the sunshine
With only five players available so far for the Harwich match next week, there was every likelihood that this would be Aldeburgh’s last game of the season. No result could alter the final league standings of either team. What was in effect an old fashioned ‘friendly’ in the sunshine was nevertheless played with whole hearted commitment by both teams.
As so often recently, Aldeburgh fielded a team of core regulars supplemented by a variety of recently acquired helpers. For the first 15 minutes, the well-established Colchester team looked as though they would wreak havoc on the Aldeburgh assemblage. Their number 12 looked particularly dangerous. Determined tackling enabled Aldeburgh to prevent a score despite showing every sign of having been introduced to each other just before the kick off.
And then after 15 minutes, the Colchester backs dropped the ball, Fred Precious, on the wing this week, picked up, hacked on, passed to Ben Watts who linked with Jed Gallant who still had a lot to do to make the line for the first try. Lewis Wardell Bird, playing prop, converted. It began to look as though 15 minutes was enough practice together for the Aldeburgh team to start playing coherently.
A few minutes later, Fred collected a deep Colchester clearing kick, flicked it inside to Adam Hateley, the other winger, who ran, passed back to Fred for him to set off on a cross field run before linking with prop Aaron Tuck who powered over.
From then on the game was characterised by powerful runs by Aldeburgh, David Rix at flanker was outstanding in this regard. The other flanker, Toby Mann, joined in. Toby even passed the ball occasionally. An unusual line up featured Jon Hunt, usually a flanker or second row, at fly half. In previous reports, I have credited Jon with ‘outrageous’ dummies. To describe the string of dummies he sold in this game, I need recourse to the thesaurus. I’m tempted by ‘of the first water, vintage, classic, exquisite.’ Take your pick. Paddy Allen was heard to comment that one could almost see Jon writing the email to tell the opposition that a dummy was coming but when he hit the Send button they still bought it. His first took him on a run from half way to score the final try of the first half to give Aldeburgh a lead of 27-0.
For inexplicable reasons, Aldeburgh played with their shirts reversed to show their alternative colours at the beginning of the second half. They shipped two tries before changing back to their regular strip. A coincidence? I don’t think so.
Aldeburgh scored a couple more tries to one by Colchester in the second half. Jon Hunt continued to throw dummies. Ben Watts, David Rix and Fred Precious made several strong runs, Adam Hateley scythed down anyone who came near him. Both teams gave it their all despite the warm conditions and hard pitch. Sadly, the final moment of the game saw David Rix lying prone with a dislocated shoulder. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Colchester is a huge club with superb facilities which maintains a good spirit throughout. Their fourth team always provide a competitive match played hard and fair even when losing.
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