Old Blues vs Old Tiffinans

The Old Blues were back to league duty on Saturday after their break when they hosted the Old Tiffinians at Motpsur Park. These are two teams who have played each other regularly over the past few years and as with previous encounters, the opening quarter proved a relatively loose and scrappy affair with the ball pinging from one end of the park to the other and no real shape to the game. The Blues opened the scoring with a penalty kick and a well taken try in the corner touched down by James Pickard, as well as a couple of more opportunistic scores, helped settle things as half time approached. The Blues went into the break 22-0 up but the game felt strangely unsettled and there was a feeling that the Blues had yet to really impose themselves. This obviously motivated the Blues to up the ante and the second half started brightly with the pack exerting some excellent pressure to go over in the corner off a lineout in the opening minutes of the half. Things continued to improve when the Blues started to put some phases together and three more tries were run in over the course of the half. The Old Tiffinians continued to push and looked to be through for a try in the corner when Michael Gray popped up out of nowhere to put in a fantastic hit and deny the Tiffs. The final whistle went with the Blues mounting another attack on the Tiffs line and the scoreboard reading 44-0. Despite the final score, this was a surprisingly scrappy game and there was plenty for the Blues to go away and think about. Highlights for the day included a HdM award winning performance from Hugo Shephard in midfield, an excellent result for the 2s and the resurrection of the mighty Nomads, after a break of 4 years. Highlights from the Christmas karaoke night that followed are too numerous to mention but Pat Thorp singing “I want it that way”, DearO’s Elvis impersonation and Avron’s interpretation of Wacko’s “Thriller” were but a few – that I can remember anyway... Next week the Blues try to keep their cup dreams alive when they head off to play Kent 1 side Gillingham Anchorians.