Starting line-up

1 Ely's Chairman 2 Martin Doughty 3 Richard Cowley

4 Ken (Rocka) Pearce 5 Shawnton De Four

6 Chris Milne 7 Ren Pesci 8 Rob Bevington

9 Mark Hanman 10 Ritz Steytler 15 Colin Weir

11 Alex Moreau 12 Antony Brown 13 Jake Ward 14 Eddy Murphy

16 Matt Price

Manager: Nick ‘Tweety Pie’ Nicholson

Match report by Chris (The Glove) Milne

Cometh November, Cometh the makeshift Renegades team.

First up a big thanks to the Ely chairman for propping for us so we didn’t have to start the game uncontested. However that lasted 20 mins as Richard’s neck had been rearranged leaving him looking slightly Quasi Modo.

Saffron Walden kindly called off their game with Ely allowing the ‘Gades to take centre stage in front of the bar on the first team pitch. This meant the Renegades defence had to cover a pitch as wide as fortress Cottenham is long. This meant some tactical positional decisions with Colin making a debut at full back.

The ‘Gades received kick off and were immediately under pressure with the back row stringing out across the pitch to help Colin make covering tackles. There was some joy to be had at the breakdown with the pack recycling quick ball to relieve the pressure, and after some desperate defence in both corners the ‘Gades broke. Ritz took the ball down the blind side from a scrum and drew the Ely back row and the winger, he looked up and popped to Chris Milne who was able to break into space. With only the full back to beat, he popped inside to Mark who had enough gas to take the ball over the line. 5 – 0 ‘Gades in the first foray into the opposition half, but unable to land the conversion.

Ely again pressed and pressed but Colin and his wingers were in fine form stopping people before the line and allowing support to get there to turn ball over. Alex kept putting his face on peoples’ boots and Ritz at fly half surged forward tying up men. However, the pressure paid off for Ely and they were able to cross the line, but unable to convert, 5-5.

As the first half was closing Shawnton burst up field as only Shawnton can do, carrying 3 players from our 22 to the half way line. Seeing support he off loaded to Chris Milne, who put in a grubber behind the Ely defence. Chasing down his kick, he then got a foot to the ball before the covering fly half and hacked on towards the try line, the ball enter the in goal area, and he managed to dive and ground the ball. Whether or not the ball was grounded in goal or dead is another matter, however the Ref couldn’t see so awarded the try. 10 – 5 to the Renegades at half time, as unexpected as Scotland leading South Africa 10 – 0.

The Second half kicked off and saw the ‘Gades camped in their own half again, this time without the forays into opposition territory. As the scrums were uncontested they decided to drop to 6 men allowing two of the back row to cover the defence. This proved to be well worthwhile as the ‘Gades clung on for the next 20 mins. However, the pressure was too much and Ely levelled with a try that stretched the defence, and converted to take a two-point lead.

Missing the boot of Darey to gain field position, the Renegades struggled to put together attacks, running from their own 5-metre line led to inroads, with Shawnton, Colin, Anthony and Ritz making hard yards but never managing to pass the half way line as the light faded.

The defending took it’s toll on the Renegades and stretched again, Ely ran in the clinching try and converted to put some gloss on the scoreboard.

Try

Mark Hanman 1
Chris (The Glove) Milne 1

Penalty

Conversion

Drop Goal

Honourable Mentions

Sam Vail