Saxons 25-20 Marlow 3XV

The early morning rain had died off and, thankfully, held off until the game was done. The Saxons started well and put points on the board at the earliest opportunity, with Bugden slotting a penalty over. With the Saxon pack being extremely dominant in the scrum and winning more than their fair share of line-out ball, the back were invited to stretch their legs, an offer the Mike ‘Shakira’ Buckler duly accepted. However, having broken a couple of tackles and reached the try line, he decided he did not fancy scoring today, and offloaded to captain Fletcher to claim the glory. Mike may well have wished he has been slightly more selfish after the game as he was fined a jug for ‘try avoidance’. Bugden converted. Shortly before half-time, Scott Jarrold managed to break the line and beat a number of players to go over. Unfortunately the conversion was missed.

I believe Marlow slotted a penalty or two in the first half, making the half-time score 15 - 3 or 6!

The second half told a much different tale. The Saxons could only manage another 10 points, all from Bugden, in the form of a try, conversion and another penalty. Despite some good defence, Marlow crept back into the game, making the final score a lot closer than it should have been at 20 - 25. However, the Saxons could easily have ended up losing this game as a Marlow player dropped the ball when clean through. Had they possessed a player capable of kicking, the referee gave Marlow ample opportunity to win the game by penalising Chiltern at every single breakdown for offences such as sneezing, coughing and burping! OK, maybe a slight exaggeration, but my ears are still personally ringing from the constant whistle blowing for offences that only the referee could see were taking place.

For the second week in a row at Weedon Lane a nasty clash of head brought a temporary halt to the game. A Marlow player and young winger, James Carty would both require stitches. However, the Marlow player taped up his head and completed the game, but Carty was unable to continue due to the combination of the wound and the fact that, in trying to help, one of the spectators picked up a bottle thinking it was water and squirted it on his face only to find she had just placed deep heat all over his cut!

I’m unsure who was given man of the match, but in my opinion, until his injury, Carty had a solid game. Tristan Harper, a Saxons regular last season, came back to play for the club this week and had an excellent match, putting in a large number of tackles. Next week is a tough test away to Readingensians, who sit on place above us in 3rd, but have scored and conceded an almost identical points tally to ours.

Team: 1. Bobbett 2. Stankard 3. Shanks 4. Bourne 5. Gibson 6. Donnebaum 7. Harper 8. Wall 9. Sitzberger 10. Bugden 11. Buckler 12. Jarrold 13. Wright 14. Carty 15. Fletcher (capt) Subs: Turner, Gilhooly

Luke Donnebaum 11.11.08