The tension was building as expectation of who was playing for which team was met in the clubhouse by the handing out of shirts.  Black signified the dark side of Stridey’s rugby playing character, and his Baa Baas team.  The white team, Fareham Select, were a little upset with being represented by nothing less than a fairy sporting a wand as the insignia on their shirts.  Some things in life just simply aren’t fair.

But the players didn’t just turn up for a free shirt and free beer (well, most, anyway).  There was some serious rugby to be played, and this was accompanied by some long overdue fine weather.  The sun was shining for Stridey, but possibly not for his team.

The kick off sounded, being viewed by the biggest crowd of the season, and straight away the Select team (playing in blue) were on the attack, pressuring with some early pack dominance.  This was a dominance that played into their hands for most of the match.  Pack dominance was also paired with the excellent early rule adaption enforced by the referee – no kicking.  This was later changed to only kicking behind your own 22, which inspired some excellent running rugby.  It certainly makes you wonder whether professional rugby should adopt this rule!

It didn’t take long for the blues to turn their early dominance into early points.

With no kicking, this was realistically 1-0, Paul Atkins’ first of the match.

In the opening salvos, it appeared that there were two players who were showing their worth – behemoth Trevor Illingworth (No. 8) for the Baa Baas, who was requiring two or three defenders to pull him down at any point, and pocket battleship Ben Strudwick who was running and tackling like a man possessed.

With the pace of Mark Barrowdale playing on their left wing, the Baa Baas had a real opportunity to test the defence of the blues, and his opposite number, Johno Pearce.  However, the few times that the Baa Baas could establish a platform in the pack from which to work, the ball was either slow, recycled back into the pack, or spread out wide and met with some faulty handling.  A few times in the first half, great opportunities were wasted by some spurious juggling of the ball.  The Select pack dominance lead to another try from front row Paul Atkins, trundling over the line unstoppably for his second.

Another of the stand-out players in the Select side was scrum half John Stallen, who was mustering his pack, and dictating play with wisdom and skill, quick of foot, and quick of hand.  The challenge of the second half was holding onto the good lead after seeing Stallen substituted.  The back line changed and organisation was marshalled by the solid Graham White (who managed to stay on for the whole 80 minutes for a change) with Jason Lamley slotting into the number 9 position.  A runaway try from Ben Strudwick cemented his capable performance.

The pressure in the second half certainly mounted from the Baa Baas, and the crowd were pleased to see the Select team generously allow Phil Stride to stumble over the line for an early birthday present.  It was agreed by the Select team that since no one had bothered to get him a real present, a try would be nice for him.  Barrowdale tried to add to this a little later, with a searing run that was cut short by the Select midfield.  Shortly after that, Barrowdale finally received and retained a ball in open play and skipped three or four tackles to sprint for the line in a show of majestic speed.  A superb try to really lift the spirits of the Baa Baas, allowing them to believe a comeback was possible at 4-3.

The barrelling runs of Illingworth were tiring the defenses of the Select back row, and at one point the considerably younger Stride, Graham, looked to be odds on to run one over the line, if not for a try stopping tackle from Pearce.

However, the last quarter of the game swung back into the favour of the Select, with the re-introduction of Stallen, and Lamley pushing out, as the dynamic tackler Paul Crowley headed for an injury-induced early bath.  The ball moved out wide several times, and finally there was a galloping run by the Select centres with Pete Whalley running wide onto the right wing.  Pearce was on hand to cut back inside in support to receive a well-timed ball, and run in for the final try of the game.  The score ended 5 tries to 3 to the Select in what had turned out to be a fine exhibition of running rugby played in the truest spirit of the game.

Johno Pearce

The squads:

The Baa Baas                                                                            Fareham Select