Old Blues vs Haslemere

The Old Blues 3XV were up and running again for the second successive season after a “rest period” of a few years when the mighty Bedouins headed down the A3 to take on our old friends from Haslemere. As usual, the Bedouins managed to put out a team comprising a mix of old and new with the majority still sweating out Friday night which made for an “interesting” atmosphere in the dressing room. After the usual careful pre-match prep of trying to figure out if we actually had a full XV (cheers to Owen and Martin for helping us out at the last minute) the Bedouins took to the field and the action commenced. The first 10 minutes saw the Bedouins pinned back in their 22 as they struggled to find their feet and click as a unit and with the Haslemere boys using an astute kicking game to play for territory. However, once we got properly warmed up, the ball started moving wide and the middle 20 of the first half saw three tries run in by Dom, Pickard and Simon O’Shea to leave the blues 19-0 ahead and they looked to be coasting. But Halsemere were having none of it and replied with a couple tries of their own when their canny fly half managed to open the Blues with a couple of chips over the Blues line to expose a poorly defended blind side. The Blues regrouped and were putting some good pressure on the Haslemere line when the whistle went with the Blues leading 19-10 at the break. The second half saw the Blues needing to improvise in the second row when they went down to 14 men due to injury. It was clearly going to be a long day for the 7 man pack but they worked their asses off and two more tries were scored in the third quarter by Dom and Kia. The final 20 saw some heroic defending as Haslemere pounded the Old Blues line but the Bedouins held firm and managed to keep the home side scoreless in the second half. The final whistle went with Old Blues the victors by 31-10. The scoreline flattered us to be fair as the Haslemere boys certainly had the edge up front and managed to put some decent phases together, but some younger legs in the midfield and back three saw us through in the end. There were some cracking performances across the team as everyone had to dig deep to make up for being a man down but HdM was Alex Orr at no.9 who was a thorough pain in the ass for the oppo – good work. Huge thanks to Zorro, Daryl and the Haslemere boys who looked after us well in the bar afterwards and helpfully provided a nice ripe sock for Pickard’s mong-of-the-match pint. We look forward to returning the favour!!