Mill Hill v Belsize Park - (by Mike Reed)

Mill Hill 19 - Belsize Park 19

17th January 2009 - Away

The “hub” at Regents Park is a pretty modern set up with great changing facilities.  The “hub” of Mills game against Belsize pre match was considered to be a solid scrummage and clean line out ball, neither turned out to be the case as a pretty abrasive and useful Park front 5 managed to stop any fluidity in Mills game. 

Playing with the breeze on a fine January afternoon Mill managed 3 first half penalties well placed by Overton.  Mill went close to a try by splitting the park defence on 2-3 occasions following decent breaks through coopo, robbo and skippy.  Abi proved himself a rather large handful with 2-3 forceful runs as did Loomo Green.  Moreover Dave Buss and Johnson also went close.  If a try could have been tacked onto the 3 penalties the remainder of the match would have been a more relaxed affair in that a higher degree of control would have been prevalent and hopefully that would have led to calmer more assured play.  

This was not to be though as Park entered Mills 22 for only the second time in the game on the stroke of H/T, a forceful maul and ruck set up the Park centre to jink and batter his way over from 15 yards. 5-9 HT.

The start of the second half saw Captain Johnson (sprung wallet) being replaced by Giloo.  Mill played pretty solidly into the breeze and tackled very well around the park generally marshalling Belsize fairly well for long periods. This coupled with extremely strong driving runs by Kilroy supported by Wilko gave Mill a rucking focus point to try and work forward from.   The game   though was fairly staccato as offence after offence was committed by both teams, at times neither side could quite work the arbitrators decision process out however for the most part both teams “just” about kept there cool.  Although this game could really have “gone” off in a bad way, perhaps in part due to the overall management of the ruck and maul contact points.     

 
After spurning some kickable penalties and with their gander up Mill eventually got the marauding Wilko free to break across the line, with Overton just failing with the conversion.  5-16.     With the wind at their backs it was certain that at some point Parks front 5 would get an opportunity in Mills 22 to exert some pressure this duly occurred and they scored a fair try from the back of the scrum 10 yards out.  10-16.

Mill rebounded and again were playing most of the rugby in the park 22, yet a catastrophic chain of poor control saw Belsize break 80 yards  to score under the sticks with 8 minutes remaining despite fine cover tackles by coopo and david overton. Conversion kicked 17-16.

Mill would not lie down and Alex’s drives and all-round team commitment saw Wishart nearly across the whitewash and with Belsize repelling everything the writing was on the wall.  A last minute penalty under Belsize’s post though allowed overton the chance to gain 3 points with the last kick off the game 17-19. 

Team :-  The Harlow Roze, 10 minutes Buss running late, Nat Atkin, Low Flying Bird, Wandering Wish, Roger Wilko,  A. Kilroy-Silk ,  Shag,  O’Connor,  Skippy, Abi Olawakola-Cole,  Robbo,  Coopo,  Loomu,  Davejarvoo  Reps Giloo, Sternoo,

Ref:  The very charming John Williams.    London Society.
Assistant referee.   GGoooooooooooo.
Next week another crucial league game at home to Royston 2:15 KO.

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Mill Hill v Hendon II (by Matt Thomas)

Mill Hill 7 – Hendon II 15

19th April 2008 - Away

Saturday saw Mill Hill take on local rivals Hendon, in a tightly fought game of rugby. The prize was a place in next weeks cup final.

Having one of the best II’s teams this season, there was a strong belief in the camp that Mill could repeat the heroics that stopped Hendon in their tracks with a 10 – 5 victory back in January.

Hendon started the better team and played some very good rugby in the opening 20 minutes. Only great defending from Mill prevented Hendon scoring early on, but the defence eventually gave in halfway through the first half. Hendon’s passing out of the tackle created an overlap on the outside and their winger scored in the corner.

Some fortunate refereeing decisions and some great last ditch tackles meant Mill went in at half time only 5-0 down. A bold decision from the captain to change things around at half time paid dividends with 15 minutes from time. Two huge dump tackles from Jon Bird and Bob Brown sent Ross Mitchell through into space, brushing off several tackles in the process!

The ball was kicked over, some hard running from Rich Buss and co meant Mill were first on the scene. Great forward work at the break down from Darren Baxter presented nice clean ball for Jon Bird to score under the posts. Conversion added. Mill Hill 7 – Hendon 5.

With only 10 minutes remaining the final was in sight, but when Mill gave away a penalty from the resulting restart, we were brought back to reality. Penalty scrapped over with a little help from the cross bar.

This seemed to take the wind out of Hill and we never really recovered from that. With the last play of the game Hendon scored the second and what proved to be the winning try.

The effort from the boys on Saturday was absolutely huge. It would be wrong to pick out a man of the match as everybody put their bodies on the line. Maybe on another day we would have been celebrating a fantastic win, but it was not to be.

Bring on next season!

Team: Moore, L.Bird, Hamilton, Mitchell, Flanagan, Wilkinson, Baxter, Vedjani, Crofts, Buss, Stack, Arnold, Farge-Bennett. Wishart, Thomas (Captain)

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Mill Hill Vets v Old Fullerians (by Mike Reed)

Mill Hill 24 - Old Fullerians 15

2nd February 2008 - Home

Clive Hancocks OF vets arrived in a similar dishellved manner to the way we normally do, so it was no coincidemce that the game did not ko until 1:30. This though did allow Tarquin and Smythy to check up on how things were going in the "street" and what a pity Vera had popped her curlers. Also Dot Cotton what a star….surely a soap oscar beckoning.

After various cry offs including a case of family brown stuff overflow (gilo) a spying mission to Russia (00Darkie) , a dickie ankle like my grandmothers (fallon) and easiest to get out of "a birth" (Davy Jones) we ended up with 18 which was a good effort.

Peter Davis having brough his sports direct plastic kit bag with his "boots" in had a terrible effect on Technical as he though he may be out technicalled with Peter having just had two knees replacement operations may actually have een in more of a fit state to play than Tim, luckily for Tim he'd brought his stuffed girraff to show barry how far he could be lifted if tim wasn't doing the lifting, what a neck!

Ron Sidestep Stolle, he of the worlds best golfer and dummier category was also in attedance not having been down the club for sometime. Ron mentioned that the game had'nt speeded up any since his day…well that’s not difficult he ran faster backwards than forwards…..…and that if my 85 metre try had been filmed, the camera man would have ran out of film by the time I'd touched down over the whitewash………..Did I tell you about my try?????? Well it went like this I got up about 7:30 on Saturday morning thinking what a lovely day for a game of rugby , light breakfast of kedgerree, a rub down by my permanetly on hand masseuse and I was ready to make my way to the stadium ………..etc etc etc….. I then got the ball on my own try line and worked my way down the lenghty pitch like the northern whippet that I always have been (surelysumistake Ed, had been….) to score over fullers try line with no help whatsoever from my team mates. Except Shag who nearly tackled me into touch………as usual Mellisha missed a dead easy kick.

In the first half Mill played up the slope and fairly sharply went behind when the Fullers scrum half noticed Legs our full back was actually reading the sporting life looking to choose a winner in the 1:35 at Catford. Legs didn’t even know fullers had scored never mind seeing the chip into the box that he wasn't guarding…..kick missed 0-5. Mill spluttered and started and were not really getting much fluency into the game, perhaps to to having uncontested scrums , still storming runns and suport by Tarquin, Barry, and Sterny Nobster playing scrum half with aplomb (so well indeed sterny is about to unretire) …..woke Mill up and it wasn,t too long before smythy crashed over in true top try scorere mode…he's still got the top try scorer statue that he bought for himself way back in 84….on the mantle. Just behind smythy as so often was the case was Diamond Dan...…Mellish somehow and god only knows how got the ball over the bar 7-5. Good half breaks by skippy kept the momentum up and only Alexs poor hands stopped Mill breaking out wide, Legs also having backed the loser in the catford race was now so riled that he snapped out of self pity to make telling incursions, this time resulting in Dollys handling error, usually Dollys handling of things on the pitch is quite good ….so I've been told. Big Ross very nearly got into full long range running mode, but didn't. Saving himself for Sundays Hells 2nd row Angels Bike bash at EXCEL where he was due to be modelling the new Harley Jockster non jumping model. Anyway more linking play and breaking by skippy with support by alex now with new hands put gillespie in with a sublime reverse pass. 12-5 forget the mellisha bit…ok I will. I'd just like to say at this juncture that Mill didn’t score on my side of the pitch………however on Mct s side foe he was playing the full 80 for them, Mill were running riot. H-T 12-5.

Mct and I had a convesation while there was a bit of rucking going on, he said he spoke to Ken my brother about him soon to become a dad, and that Ken hadnt taken too kindly to Mcts suggestion of calling the baby "Chip", never mind calling it "Olata" if it’s a girl.

We now gave OF's Mellisha as a replacement for me .... At this point OFs all just wanted to go home, but referee Mr Maycock of the London society had been having such a wonderful fluent conversation with them , that he wouldn't let them go, and anyway there replacements had just turned up. Blaky in resplendant blue scrum cap and red face now came on for big ross, blakys understanding and hearing of the line out calls were now of major concern for barry as barry would rise 6 inchs then rise no further. (theres another story there somewhere but I think its really to do with 4inchs?) Blaky then somehow kneed himself in the kidneys…. and had to retire. Just after this Gilly and Shag made a break feeding the ball to Legs who failed to heed Gillys advice and was now to be called a nasty word for the rest of his life.

Then came the telling moment (that'll be me then) as the Mill Hill full back caught the ball under his own sticks and ran 95 metres for a gloruios try. 17-5 (whoops 8) Fullers did do something rather unusual in a vets game and kicked a penalty goal….mind you they didnt have mellisha playing for them - so it was obviously worth a shot.. ….needless to say the kick went sailing down dollis brook. We then had to withstand a lot of pressure from a very game fullerians team and they duely scored a try after repeatedly being repelled, it was fully deserved,, 17-15. With about 10 mins to go , it was a good close game, luckily Mill picked up ther all round game and Alex punched through the middle after a good quick tap penalty tap and run from crackers and barry put wing commander airey in under the posts. (22-15) at this point it captain reed turned to reliable Johnny Crackers to duley slot over 24-17. There was a rather odd case of me cocking up just after this but its not worth reporting.

Another good fun vets game enjoyed by all….

Team. Technical Tim, Johnny Cracknell, Jumbo Tarquin Spur Adams, Big Ross, low flying Barry, Dolly Pollack, Smythy, Diamond Dan, Sterny Nobster, Skippy, Mellishsa, Gilly, Alex, Steve Hagg, Legs.

Reps Blaky, Reedy Mct, Pete Davis. Mct played all game for fullerians as hooker, Capt Reed played 40 mins for Old Fullerians as non combatant winger, then switched allegiances when there cavalry arrived. Peter Davis offered himself to fullerians however as they had no "fiery jack" - things just wouldn't have worked out. Plus he had to think of Technicals safety.

Ref Mr Maycock of the London Society.
Linesmen Gold Flag Charlie Hurst - Engel Park Society : Chocolate Flag Guy Reed -- Thornfield Avenue Society:

Lovely food as usual by Wayne and Rebecca. THANKS.

The vets then had a whip round and presented Eloïse with a simple gift for all her hard work in setting up Mill Hills website - really helping everyone keep in touch.

Middlesex v Hertfordshire

Middlesex 12 - Hertfordshire 7

It's not often that the county club team beats county opposition, yet on Wednesday two young Mill Hill players Scott Robinson and Dave Overton made their county debut. Also captain Lee Johnston was selected, all played very well to beat Hertfordshire by 12-7. Scott and Dave in particular deserve a club commendation for attaining this standard. Dave ended up playing Fly Half after 20 minutes early on and gave a very good all round tactical display, with Scott although out of position on the wing recycled the ball very well after usually getting the ball in awkward situations.

Lets hope that they and the rest of the club keeps driving up performances. .
Well Done -Mike.

MIDDLESEX BEAT HERTFORDSHIRE 12 - 7 AND WON THE DAVID RANSOM CUP
1) Sam Hart (Datchworth) (Ex Haringey)
2) Richard Elvery (Datchworth) (ex Mill Hill)
3) Jonathan O Connor (Finchley)
4) Dougie Stewart (Twickenham)
5) Martin Wareing (Abbotstonians)
6) Rob Franklyn (Harrow)
7) Lee Johnston (Mill Hill)
8) Nick Argent (Harrow)
9) Ainsley Ralph (Finchley)
10) Barry Neil (Datchworth) (Ex Harrow)
11) Scott Robinson (Mill Hill)
12) Neil Gorge (Abbotstonians)
13) Phil Astbury (Twickenham)
14) Dave Overton (Mill Hill)
15) Jermaine Coleman (Finchley)
Replacements
16) Ben Prescott (St Nicholas Old Boys)
17) Paul Goss (Finchley)
18) Duncan Campbell (Twickenham)
19) Warren Christopher (Finchley)
20) Hughton Campbell (Finchley)