Quintin 8 - 3 Belsize Park
Captain Cooney had much sympathy for Martin Johnson after another weak England performance, emphasizing with the former England Captain as to the list of absentees not available for selection.
However where, England’s Andy Goode failed to impress in his brief stint, Quintin’s Goode look alike, veteran Lee May delivered, earning himself the man of the match award for a fine defensive display alongside centre partner Whiting who also had a good game.
Belsize Park turned up looking eager and no wonder with only one loss for the season to date they were the bookies favourites. Their extended warm up, which I think started before most of the Quintin 1st XV had left the Thai restaurant on Friday night failed to materialise into any effect on the match. Q’s much shorterned, energy conserving warm up paid dividends in weather that can only be described as forward friendly.
Q’s dominated just about every area of the game with the exception of the scrum, though in truth neither attacking team attempted much expansive play. The victory was built on sustained pressure with multiple phases in attack and pressing drift defence.
The only try of the match came in the first half playing into a strong wind, after sustained pressure in the Belsize 22, and a few penalties that were lucky not to invoke further punishment from the excellent referee. The fourth penalty was put in the hand of Damian Mitchell, who duly delivered a trade mark 5 metre score. This put Q’s into a lead they would not lose having conceded an earlier penalty.
Turing round with a narrow lead the second half was probably the most professional 40 minutes played in a long time, with Belsize park rarely getting a sniff of the Quintin try line.
Q’s held firm adding a straight forward penalty as the only score of the second half to secure the points.
Man of the match: Lee May – clever kicking and fantastic marshalling of the defensive line all game
Girl of the match: Andy Kennedy – missing the whole game whilst waiting for a washing machine to be delivered
Honourable Mentions – Tim May for some fantastic tackling throughout and Freddie Mills for his Florence Nightingale impression, spending much of his time nursing both home and away players.