Needed an Ark, Got a Win

Chipstead were seriously close to gifting a walkover on Thursday night but finally managed to get enough to warrant a trip down to the dark side of Kent in the first round of the national edf junior vase. This meant a first team debut for Andy Mason who was playing rugby for the first time in about 5 years. A return to the club for Simon Martin at 12 to add experience to our forever young back line. Again in the starting lineup only elder statesmen Martyn Floodgate, Captain Alex Cannon & Darren Lilley were over the age of 24, so Martin being our 'middle aged man'. We arrived at #fortressmeads for a 12 meet so we could all go down in convoy like the good old days. Myself,Kisz & Lilley arrived by our fine British railway system and was treated by our mentor with some 'Patties' which to us village folk is a glorified pasty bake. Once at chips we gave out the leftover food assortments and all got in our respective cars for our little jaunt down the M25. We all arrived in one piece although myself and Andy Mason managed to find a new meaning to quicket route possible on the satnav.

So with half an hour before kickoff we finally emerge from the changing rooms and went about our usual pre game warm up that coach Wrighty and the newly re puzzled coach bushy who watched on the sideline like he was the Lord mayor in his fold out seat and umbrella. the rain was torrential, cold and wet but Lordswood kicked off and within 28 seconds we should of been 5 maybe even 7 points to the good if it wasn't for a particular person. However since I was criticised last week for a mistake I will not name this person. But pat Kisz broke a tackle gave the ball to Darren who ran to the 5 m line in the far right hand corner and with the full back coming gave it to sed person who rather than put the ball down once across the line decided to run along the dead ball line to the posts where he was pushed out of bounds and a 22 dropout. Not much to say about the rest of the match apart from it was cold and wet. Pat kicked 2 penalties and for the second week running tried pretending to being South african and kick a penalty from our own half. We struggled with me as a makeshift prop but we slowly ground there hefty pack down seeing as they were at least a stone heavier per man especially matts opposite number in the second half who probably weighed the same as our back row combined. An excellent performance again from Stewart and Tom Hawgood who played beyond their years especially Mr flack in his non normal position of full back. Darren's years are starting to catch up with him and he went off injured now usually that would mean bringing on a back but when you have a player that has played every position apart from 9 & 10 in only 3 years in senior rugby, you have to bring him on especially when he was chomping at the bit after his recent injury layup his name is 'Sir Boris of Elements' to give his full title.
As the game wore on injuries took toll and all if the bench was exhausted with 2nd team captain 'Matty Reigate' although after the evenings activities he has lost that title. Lordswood started to lose there rags a bit with 2 yellow cards for punching one so blatant that he was lucky to escape without a red. The crowd were very partisan and in particular had a liking for me and our wingers, his level 5 coaching badge the same level as Stuart Lancaster was the best line I heard and most laughable. The ref was probably the best we have had in a while although didn't really have a scooby at scrum time, and did try and help them with a match winning converted try in the last 2 minutes where we received 7 penalties against where James Mann clearly had won the ball and so it was up to Lordswood to keep running at Captain Cannon and Alex Barretta who then took one for the team and got a yellow. Whistle blew and CHIPSTEAD had escaped a 6-0 win. excellent hospitality from all at Lordswood, thanks for the jugs and grub. Time for Manny to pop to Brighton which is becoming very frequent, hay who are we to judge. Then 10 of us back to the club where Roy opened up and cooked us roast potatoes which Adam Hollidge found out we're hot when they came out the oven.From there the chips disbanded apart from a couple who ventured to Reigate with the king himself.So back to league fixtures for both teams on Saturday with 1st xv first home game vs arch rivals Law Society and the 2s away to Bec Old Boys whom won there first game 147-0, good luck chaps. next round is drawn on Wednesday .