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Diary dates:
Former Players Buffet Lunch
will be held on Saturday 17th
April prior to the Biggleswade
vs Thorney match. The Luncheon is being organised by club
president Mike Williams (01462 624925)
Club Dinner and awards
will be held on Friday 30th
April
We are collecting the
Tesco Vouchers again this year. For Mini and Youth equipment.
Please put vouchers in the
box on the bar
Bedfordshire Cup 2nd Round
Queens 26 Biggleswade 20
If Queens thought they just had to turn
up to win this tie they were sorely disappointed. Right from the
start Biggleswade tore into the Midlands 3 side and matched them try
for try. At the end it was the lack of a reliable kicker that made the
difference between the two sides. Biggleswade put out almost the same
squad as last week with just Michael Haddow (work) and Jonathan
Hamilton (hamstring strain) missing. Dean Bartlett returned and the
venerable war-horse and former first team skipper Andy Rook filled
the other back row slot. A greater difference in styles is hard to
imagine!
Eight of the present squad were either
not born or still in nappies when Biggleswade won the Cup way back in
1991 against Leighton Buzzard then the dominant force in the County.
Biggleswade started strongly and almost scored in the first two
minutes. Instead Queens broke away and scored at the other end.
Biggleswade quickly hit back with their first score. A quick tapped
penalty up the blind side led to a try for winger Jimmy Hart.
From the restart Dean Bartlett made a
storming break that almost led to a second try. Instead Queens
weathered the onslaught and then broke out to add to their tally with
another converted try. Full back Nic Edenborough was forced to leave
the field with a damaged shoulder to be replaced by Taig Norman now
fully fit after cutting his ear a month ago.
Awarded a penalty for holding on
Biggleswade added their second try as once again dashing Dean
Bartlett outpaced the defence. Biggleswade then took the lead with
another Hart effort. A penalty was kicked into the corner by Damian
White with unerring accuracy. From the lineout the ball was spun down
the line, quickly recycled by the three-quarters for Jimmy Hart to
finish off.
The lead did not last long with Queens
scoring a couple of tries one of which was converted. The match then
boiled over and following ugly scenes two Queens’s players were
dispatched to the sin-bin to cool off. Biggleswade capitalised by
shoving the lightened park back over the line for number eight Dom
Nott to crash over for his ninth try of the season.
In the closing moments Biggleswade came
close to getting the winner but it just eluded them. For the last ten
minutes skipper Ross Taylor made a cameo appearance to try out his
healing hand. After the match he said, “I am very proud of the team,
we gave Queens a real fright.”
Team: C Maxwell (J Caulfield), H Dix, D
Tyson, T Hill, I Jones, A Rook (R Taylor), D Bartlett, D Nott, J Gordon,
G Gadsby, D White, T Ruffle, B Caulfield (W Roake), J Hart, N
Edenborough (T Norman).
Next Saturday there is a return to league
action with a trip to Leicester to take on Stoneygate. The home tie
was a walkover when the Leicester side cried off as unable to put out
a front row. This was a great surprise as Stoneygate did very well in
the first part of the season. They will be a tough nut to crack at
home. But Biggleswade travel full of confidence after their recent
matches.
Please help with club
repairs 5th & 6th June 2010
We are participating in RBS
RugbyForce,
an
exciting club initiative designed to unite rugby club members and volunteers
across the country.
More
details to follow
Biggleswade
2nd Team 14 – 17 Saffron Walden 3rd Team
Greene
King Cup
Saffron
Walden are flying high at the top of the Greene King Deuxieme Nord
league, so this was always going to be a challenge for Biggleswade,
however, a ten minute period just after half time when Biggleswade
were down to fourteen men was the decisive factor.
Expecting
a 2.15pm kick off, Biggleswade were warmed up and ready to go fifteen
minutes before the opposition, who were expecting a 3pm kick off,
arrived. The visitors won the toss and elected to play with the
stiff breeze at their backs. The first twenty minutes were an
even contest but Saffron Walden kept nudging the ball back into the
Biggleswade half every time the home side started to work their way
up field. Pressure finally told as Biggleswade gave away a
penalty in their twenty two and the quick thinking Saffron Walden
hooker took a quick tap and caught Biggy napping to score their first
try (unconverted). Shortly after, Hooker Jonny Daislay went off
with a fractured collarbone to be replaced temporarily by veteran Roy
Caulfield and eventually Sacha Heath. Both Roy and Sacha coming
from opposite ends of their playing careers played very well when
they were on the pitch.
Biggleswade
came out firing from the restart and a great pick up from the back of
a scrum ten metres into the Saffron Walden half saw Number 8 Stuart
West run round the outside of the Blind Side Flanker, brush off the
Scrum Half, stream roll over the opposition Full Back and bounce off
the covering winger to score under the posts. The cheer from
the modest crowd was immense. Matt Smith kicked the conversion.
Shortly after, Saffron Walden connected well in their backs and
their Full Back, now recovered from Mr Wests attentions made a break
round the outside. Gavin Taylor at Full Back for Biggleswade
made the covering tackle, which would have been legal in rugby league
as it was below the eyebrows. However, the referee felt that
nearly tearing his head off, although not intentional, was a yellow
card offense, sending Taylor for an early break before half
time. Saffron Walden elected to kick a penalty from this
incident but failed the attempt. Biggleswade went in at half time
two points ahead with everything to play for.
Almost
from the start of the second half, Saffron Walden took advantage of
the extra man and created space out wide to score their second try.
The conversion went wide but it wasn’t long before they were in
again as their winger drove through to score under the posts giving
their kicker a much better opportunity to slot home the extra two
points, which he did.
Gav
Taylor returned to the fray and Biggleswade again looked threatening
with ball in hand but the visitors defence held out. Rucks were
an issue all game as the referee allowed both sides to kill the ball
by diving over the top but didn’t penalise the offense and wouldn’t
permit the opposing team to use their feet to remove the offending
player. This slowed the ball down and allowed the defences to
reorganise themselves, stopping what could have been a more open
flowing game. That said, it was the referees first Senior Game
and overall he kept control and did very well.
Biggy
finally got their second try when Matt Smith put in a cross field
kick for winger Mike Hall to collect. Hall may be a junior colt
but he is a strong runner and vicious tackler. He saw off
several attempted tackles to score under the posts; Smith again
adding the conversion. Biggleswade had several penalties late
in the half but they were all within their own twenty two and the
normally reliable boot of Skipper Mark Rastrick, who has been side
lined for the last 7 weeks, was a little shaky, missing his intended
target. With time running out, Biggy piled on the pressure but
couldn’t keep the visitors pinned in their own twenty two for long
enough to build a sustained attack. The final whistle went
leaving the home team feeling they could have done more.
Biggleswade:
Howell,
Daislay (Heath), Burke, Flack, Avison, Loan, Farron, West, Elcock,
Smith, Rastrick, Bass, Drew, Hall, Taylor.
Next
week (20th March) Saffron Walden return for the second
league fixture and Biggleswade will be looking to turn the tables on them
and come away with a victory.
Biggleswade Colts – 43
Welwyn Colts – 0
(Friendly)
Just as Schumacher strode
onto the grid like a returning colossus in Bahrain, another old
warhorse returned to action as Ray Weller took charge of the Colts in
the absence of Stan Matthews.
Biggy took pole position
five minutes into the match with a try from Mike Hall. Probably the
try of the game came a few minutes later when a sweet move from Dean
Bartlett to Will Priston finally sent Sean Hawkins over for Biggy’s
second try. With the juggernaut that is Stuart West carving holes in
the opposition defence it was not long before a run from West set up
Hall for his second, and Matthews slotted the conversion.
Do not be under any
illusion that this was easy for Biggy, the game was excellently
controlled by a newly qualified referee who allowed both sides to
play fluent rugby. For ten minutes in the first half, Welwyn upped
the pressure and were camped on the home sides line, but as some of
the Six Nations sides have found this year, being camped on the line
does not always lead to a try, and so it proved.
Biggleswade’s fourth try
came via Will Priston following some intense pressure, Matthews
converted and Biggy rang the changes with some of the younger Colts
making an appearance. The Biggleswade set pieces had worked very
well, a point that coach Weller was keen to point out and it was from
a turned over scrum that Bartlett grabbed his chance and ran a good
40 metres to bring the try count to five.
Half time saw more Biggy
changes and the entire 24 man squad were given a run out and gained
valuable game time prior to the upcoming league game against
table topping Luton Colts.
Another try from Hall and
one from Matthews took the score to 43 points. Coach Weller said
afterwards “ This was a good result and a job well done, everything
we had planned worked well, the backs made good use of the ball and
this was a very positive performance, our younger Colts had a good
test and came through it well”.
He also went on to praise
both the referee and opposition “ Welwyn are a very capable side and
we needed to be at our best to beat them” he said.
On Sunday, Biggleswade
meet Luton in what is promising to be a cracker of a game with both
sides having maximum points. Kick off is 1pm at Biggleswade with
Luton determined to beat their county rivals in the Herts and
Middlesex league.
Biggleswade
Colts.
Bartlett,
Cusack, Franklin, Gregory, Haddow, Hall, Harwood, Hawkins, Heath,
Hewitt, Loan, Mackenzie, Matthews, Nott (C), Pates, Price, Priston,
Pickering, Roake, Sale, Taylor, Warboys, West , Weller,
Don’t forget Six
Nations games will be shown at the Club
on the big screen
Saracens Summer Training
Camp
 Thursday 19th and Friday
20th August
Details of the course will
follow soon!
Midlands
4 East (South)
Thorney
0 Biggleswade 46
Biggleswade
recorded their second league “win” in a row with a comprehensive
demolition of Thorney. They ran in Sven tries and would have had more
but for numb fingers in the chilly conditions. There is not much to
stop the cold wind on the flat steppes of the Fenland.
Biggleswade
had the best possible start with a score within two minutes. Biggy’s
scrum-half young James “Flash” Gordon going over under the posts
after selling the most outrageous dummy. Flash must be one of the
slightest players ever to fill the number nine shirt but he tackles
people twice his size with relish.
The
second try came from hooker Harry Dix his fourth in six games. As
usual he was loitering with intent and took the most of the chance
when it came. The Biggleswade forwards were much the stronger for
most of the afternoon. It was no surprise that awarded a five metre
scrum they put on the big push with number eight Dom Nott doing the
rest.
Thorney
did not care for burly centre Tom Ruffles running at them. He added
Biggleswade’s fourth try just before the break. There had been many
close calls and a string of five metre penalties so the score had to
come. For an infringement after the try was scored Biggleswade were
awarded a penalty from the restart but it was the last play of the
first half.
Having
played with the fresh wind Biggleswade were wondering whether the
twenty-four point lead would be enough. They needn’t have worried.
Thorney had not a single shot at goal and Biggy’s try line was never
threatened either. Biggleswade’s first points of the second period
were an anaemic looking penalty from Graham Gadsby that just scrapped
over the cross-bar.
Instead
the second half saw further tries from Michael Haddow, Tom Ruffle and
Will Roake. Haddow playing at flanker scored at one end while your
correspondent was looking for an errant kicking tee at the other so
no details available although watching Dad Graham said it was a
“cracker”.
Tom
Ruffle’s second try came after a period of broken play and as he
raced away for the line Thorney had no-one interested in chasing him.
In
the last few minutes flanker Jonathan Hamilton was sidelined with
cramp. Having used their replacements Biggleswade played on one short
and didn’t appear to miss him. In fact they added their seventh try
as young Will Roake opened his legs and raced sixty metres for a try
under the posts. Graham Gadsby added his fourth conversion.
Team:
C Mall, H Dix, J Caulfield (D Tyson), T Hill, I Jones, J Hamilton, M
Haddow, D Nott, J Gordon, G Gadsby, D White (J Hart), T Ruffle, B
Caulfield, W Roake, N Edenborough.
On
Saturday with a much tougher game Biggleswade return to the real
world. They travel to Bedford to take on the Queens in the second
round of the Bedfordshire Cup. Sharnbrook their first round opponents
had given Biggleswade a walk-over when they scratched from the
competition.
Biggleswade
AXV 15 – 8 Royston AXV
A
try in the last minute of the game sealed Biggleswade second teams away
win over Royston but it was less then convincing.
Missing
from last week were Andy Claypole who has been standing in as Captain
for injured skipper Mark Rastrick, Phil Elcock (hamstring), Nathan
Thoday (work), Kyle Loan (party), Liam Price (Party), Tom Farron (eye
injury), Ben Hewitt (not answering his phone) and Mike Haddow (First
Team call up). Stepping in to take over were Andy Burke,
Carlton Avison (Captain), Gareth Drew, Andy Rook, Mark Peace, Matt
Smith and Matt Sale.
Biggleswade
started the game with the strong wind blowing at their backs but
failed to take advantage of it for much of the first half.
Royston’s large pack played a mauling game, which Biggleswades
forwards were able to deal with but this created a lot of slow ball
for the visitors. Scrum half, Jonny Pearson had another good
game but spent much of his time digging the ball out of rucks and
mauls as Royston forwards made a nuisance of themselves, sealing it
off whenever they could. The referee finally spotted this misdemeanour
and awarded Biggleswade a penalty, which Matt Smith, recently
returned from Gibraltar after a five month leave of absence, pushed
just wide of the posts. Biggleswade’s backs always looked
dangerous with the ball in hand but aimless kicks and poor handling saw
the ball turned over on several occasions. The pressure
increased in the latter part of the first half as Matt Smith began to
use the wind to push Royston back into their twenty two. Andy
Burke finally broke the deadlock when he battered his way over from a
lineout on the Royston five metre line. Smith missed the
conversion. Royston were awarded a penalty of their own,
finishing the half off the stronger but down by two points.
In
the second half, Biggleswade lost focus and allowed the home side in for
their first try. Royston were getting to the breakdown in
greater numbers and turned Biggleswade over on several occasions.
The try, and some strong words from Ian Flack, rallied
Biggleswade and the support improved. Dean Bartlett, playing on
the left wing fielded a loose Royston kick and stepped and jinked his
way through several Royston players to score just to the right of the
posts. Luke Bass took over kicking duties but failed to add the
conversion. In the last minute of the game, Biggleswade made a
break down the right wing. Gareth Drew chipped ahead and it was
a footrace for the ball. The Royston winger got to the ball
first and attempted to kick it dead, however, he miss kicked it into
the dead ball area across the back of the posts and substitute centre
Matt Sale beat the Full Back to the ball, diving on it just to the
left of the posts. Stuart West (N°8) attempted the conversion
and pushed the ball wide of the posts.
This
was a lacklustre performance from Biggleswade, who can play much better
than this. The support play and determination to play as a team
seen in previous weeks was missing.
Next
week, the 2’s are at home to Saffron Walden 3’s in the semi finals of
the Greene King Cup and need to turn up determined to make amends.
Biggleswade:
Howell, Marshall, Burke, Flack, Avison, Peace, Rook, West, Pearson,
Smith, Davies (Sale), Bass, Drew, Bartlett and Taylor.
Biggleswade
Rugby & Squash Club March E-News
Sixty Years of Biggleswade
Rugby
Diamond Anniversary Ball.
Saturday 26th June.
Squash Club Open Day is being held on Saturday 17th April 1.30pm until 4pm.
Representatives from the county Squash Racquets Association will be attending
to coach players, court fees will be waivered and existing rugby club
members and general public are invited.
Bedfordshire Cup Bedford Queens vs. Biggleswade on Saturday 13th March
at Queens.
The next Rugby Club Meeting is on Monday 15th March
at 7.45pm. Loads to discuss!
Members are
still needed to take on some vital jobs next season across all
sections of the club.
Extraordinary General Meeting is on Wednesday
17th March at 8pm. As mentioned before, this is to
discuss the incorporation of the club which will have an impact on
all sections of the Rugby and Squash club.
Details of
the options can be found on the RFU website (see previous E-News for
the link).Club secretary Simon Rutt or president Mike Williams will take
any questions prior to the meeting. It is hoped that a legal
representative will attend to answer any questions on the night.
Schools Year 3 & 4 Tag Finals are being held at the club on Wednesday 17th March 10am until 12 noon..
Lower Schools taking part are Cople, Lawnside, Dunton, Caldecote, St
Andrews, Southlands with All Saints Clifton possibly being seeded
into another area. Each school will have three teams entered.
For this
Schools day, we need someone from the younger age groups to attend,
just to keep an eye on things. More details will be on the Message
Board nearer the time. Please come forward if you can give up a
couple of hours on March 17th
Bedfordshire Festival U10/U11/U12s will be
held at Biggleswade on Sunday 21st March starting at 10am
and going through the day. All Bedfordshire clubs are entered
including new boys Kempston.
Entry is by £2 lucky number programme.
Help will needed in the kitchen and with various other jobs.
Please contact Richard Boissieux (07875 119522) if you can help
Former Players Buffet Lunch will be held on Saturday 17th April prior to the Biggleswade vs Thorney
match. The Luncheon is being organised by club president Mike
Williams (01462 624925)
Saracens Update. The two day skills course was a huge success and
Saracens will be back! Summer dates are still being finalised and there
will be a course at Biggy!
Saracens vs Harlequins at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 17th
April at
4.30pm. The day will also feature a medieval theme with knights, jousting
, etc and the pre-match entertainment will be from Right Said Fred, who
were probably around during the medieval period!
Tickets are
£10 Adults and £5 Children.
Please
note, the flyers that are around the club give the phone number of
Ticketmaster, do not book it via them as you will pay more per
tickets and a booking fee. The tickets booked through Biggy may be
subject to a Cashback but this is to be confirmed.
NOTICE TO ALL MEMBERS.
EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.
WEDNESDAY 17TH MARCH 2010. 8PM.
Ladies and Gents,
This is notice that there will be an Extraordinary General Meeting of
the Association and Rugby Club held at the Club at 8pm on Wednesday
17th March 2010.
This is to discuss a possible change in the Constitution and the
Association changing to an Incorporated Body.
If you wish to discuss this - please speak to either John Thoday,
Simon Rutt, Richard Phipps or Mike Williams as to how it will affect
the club.
This change applies to all members of the club and you are all
invited to this important meeting.
Please support you club and its way forward.
Simon Rutt.
Hon Secretary - Biggleswade RUFC.
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