Datchworth III 10 Upper Clapton A 33

The A XV (A for 'Away' this season) bounced back from last week's defeat with what turned out to a decent win against a stubborn Datchworth side which played the whole game two players down. Again, a number of changes were made to the Clapton XV which in recent weeks has lost some consistency of selection due to work and other commitments by a number of the team's regulars. However, in came Phil McKeller and Steve Ericsson both of whom made significant contributions to the win.

From the off it was clear that if Clapton could get the ball to their backs there was a fair chance that the constant overlap would be enough to secure the points. Within the first few minutes that proved true as the club's first attack almost resulting in a try for wing sensation Andy 'Whickers' Whickman but the final pass to him fell just too low for a clean catch.

From the restart Clapton swept the ball to the other wing where Ben New-man-bury dotted down for a 5 nil lead. Stalley Minor slotted the conversion for the extra points. Soon after Toby Sweeney collected the ball in mid-field and outpaced the defenders to extend the lead - again Stalley Minor added the extras.

Datchworth did actually hold most of the possession during the early exchanges and employed the tactic of using the big blokes to run down the hill into the Clapton defence which generally held true. But after several minutes of unfruitful play in the Clapton 22 the home side opted for a pop at goal which reduced the Clapton lead by 3 points. With no further score in the half Clapton turned around to face down the hill 14 - 3 to the good.

During the second period Clapton enjoyed high levels of possession and we able to stretch the Dathworth defence on many occasions. But the home side were determined to not let the score run away and they fought well until Clapton scored again in the corner. Stalley Minor again stepped up to attempt what was a huge kick - 40 yards out and from the right touchline. His pink and violet boot addressed the ball, made contact and sent it sailing through the uprights - great kick and 21-3. The restart enabled Datchworth to get out of their half where their rugged play created some half chances which were snuffed out before the home side's combative fly half found a gap between the Club's back row and half backs to score under the posts. With the conversion secured Datchworth narrowed the gap to 21-10.

With 20 minutes to go, Clapton decided to let the backs run the game and virtually everything was pushed along the back line in an attempt to score further points but to also involve the two new boys on the wings. Whickers had several chances to test his skills but developed an odd habit of running off of the pitch (at one point a spectator suggested we build a fence to keep him in play) but he also suffered slightly from Stalley Major proving last week's shout that "no-one gets the ball off of Scott Stalley" - he's on your side Scott - PASS!!

Finally, Cam Furlong saw the chance to throw an outrageous dummy that wrong footed the Datchworth defence before racing down the hill to score under the posts. Up stepped Stalley Minor to chip his easiest kick of the day through the posts - but much to his own embarrassment he missed. Then with the final play of the day, Furlong fired a torpedo of a miss pass behind Stalley Major, direct to Whickers who was determined to score. Half a pitch and five missed tackles later and he was under to posts for his first Clapton try, followed by a kind of strange and disconcerting 'He Man' chest thump and roar. Odd.

So - 33-10 against dogged opposition and at times Clapton were going through the motions (although three further tries were disallowed by the ref for being held up). Next week's game will be against either Biggleswade (league leaders) or Cambridge (Cup) where nothing short of 100% effort for the full 80 minutes will be good enough to secure a win.