Hi chaps
Sitting in The White Swan at about 1;45 on Sat afternoon having my first glass of the house wine, which is obviously a Chateau bottle vintage year on par with Chateau Petrus the heavens opened up and rain and hailstones suddenly hit the place!
This was the start to the afternoon but by 2;30 the rain had passed so had my glass of wine and the sun was shinning.
Conditions were ideal…clear blue sky, firm ground and the final delicate touches were being made in the changing rooms to jock straps, body armour, and various other bits of vital strapping that makes up a Bulldog player and keeps him together and ready for 40 mins each way! On the pitch that is !
Only our second game and a cracking win of 24 points to 7 !!! and all photo recorded for posterity!!!
We were playing our old friends the Thamesians…a local side determined to put more than a few tries on us….
However, with a good pre match run through the game and a few threats by the oldest captain in the area, Colin Lenthall, still recovering from a rugby spectator injury The Bulldogs were very keen to get the game under way.
Each week the Bulldogs team can vary quite a lot due to players being away ands also no pressure placed on anyone to play every week
However, this week we had the return of “Bull” Patterson a player that can easily carry three guys on his shoulders and still keep going for the try line. A great return to the front row. He was accompanied by “ Bang ‘ em up” Woodsie at hooker and “casualty” John (drives and brings along his ambulance complete with oxygen)
In the second row or the engine dept. shoving up the front row we had “mighty” matt coupled with “hang ‘em high” ” Steve ( our jumper) …a fair old drive could be expected….right behind them we had “Johnno” Simon and with two wing forwards in the shape of “Judge” Dave and “sapper” Pete
A formidable pack the likes of which had not graced the pitch at Marble Hill Park this season. Our outsides were also looking good with Dom “the slayer “ at scrum half…..likes jumping on his opposite number or anyone that get in the way. Outside we had “Two step” Roger wit a great turn of speed and a tricky side step. At inside centre we had “hit ‘em hard “ Brad just re-imported from Oz, a mere 6.4” 17 stone and 12.5 for the 100 metres! Outside centre we had “smoothie “ Jazza who is not only fast but also seem to navigate around the oppo to knock up tries every week. On the wing we had Flyer Ian and Tricky Nick and Rollerbal Marti n at Fullback on the bench we had that all-rounder Steve M , and Michael and Alex B limbering up with his children!
Now onto the game!!
Iron Man Tony Bianchi had his new camera back and you can see the fantastic results …the game is very well illustrated by Tony’s photos…the one of Jazza and Roger in full flight sums up the speed and determination…Martin’s frame by frame run just goes to show how he has improved since last season and Dom getting the ball away at the base of the scrum,Brad making penetrating runs midfield and running in arty we even have a shot of Alex B on the touchline limbering up with his youngsters and of Bojangles and Jane
The photo journalism of The Bulldogs is becoming quite legendary and they are always put up on the web site and circulated to the complete mailing list every Monday.
The game was a cracker with Roger kicking off with a good high ball that our forwards stormed down on and so off we went driving into the Thamesian’s half and that is where we ran the game from our forwards were awesome and we pushed the oppo all over the park and won many against the head with superb hooking and front row play augmented a big drive for the power house.
Dom at scrum half gave his oppo a very hard time and caught him time and again at the base of the scrum…this was followed up by our back row and led to some strong running from the forwards. Big Steve in the lineout jumped well and we had good possession. With a good pack driving ahead and a lineout working well our outsides had a field day with good fast ball that resulted in tries from Brad and superb back up tries by Matt Dom and Dave U.
Time and time again our outsides pushed through the oppo shaking off tackles as they ploughed through the defence.
Wingers had many good run sand both Nick and Ian had good games constantly testing the opposition Martin’s run from fullback to the other end of the park was the run of the day! Big Bard calmly drove through with the odd hand off here and there to bang a try under the posts. Matt, Bull Patterson and Simon had a powerful game with Pete testing the loose maul.
A good all-round game and onto next week.
BUT a number of players will be away for our big one against London French at home at marble hill….however some of the big guns may also be back…..Clarkie, Lenny, Malcolm, Alex et al.
PLEASE CONFIRM BY WE IF YOU ARE AVAILBLE
Colin/Tony