SUTTON CATCH A LATE COLD

On a truly horrendous afternoon meteorogically speaking, that started dark and wet and ended in a Stygian storm of Biblical proportions, that was too much for one or two, but more of that later, Sutton 3s fell an a agonising 2 points short to Silhillians 2s.To push a team riding a confident wave at the top of Warwickshire Merit League 1 to within 2 points shows the application of the home team players, well most of them anyway. The big surprise was that a hugely enjoyable game to play in, if not to watch!!! was conjured out of the swamp of a pitch!!!!
In a game that started in the wet, there were few signs, in truth, of the horrors that were to come!!! Playing with the wind at their back Sutton made several excursions into Sils territory through powerful running by Matt Lawson in particular, who was to have a fine game, justifiably earning his man of the match billing. The difficulty was keeping the ball in hand and on the park as numerous balls made bids for freedom on the strong winds and on the end of various players' feet, disappearing high over the touching, trees and unfortunately houses!!!!! As a result there were many scrum and lineouts which worked considerably better than the previous game against Bromsgrove(see last week's report oh no one has because it hasn't been written yet!!!) Eventually a ball did stick and replacement James King started a fine run and pass which was quickly recycled leading to Tom Foulsham scrambling over for the first score of the afternoon. The conversion was missed 5-0 to the men in green , or should that be brown merging to black??? However as is Sutton's way indiscipline and decision making plagued the home team for the rest of the afternoon as Silhillians roared back with a converted try to take a 7-5 lead. But not to be outdone full back Alex Shaw scored a fine individual try which he converted to restore Sutton's lead heading towards the interval. From a promising position in the opposing 22 Silhillians scampered the full length of the pitch to go in at half time with a 14-12 lead.
With the weather worsening by the second the half ended with a veritable perfect storm of hail, thunder, lightning and ferocious winds which left the pitch looking like a World War 1 battlefield. Sutton made a great start to the second half, camping in the opponents 22 for ten to fifteen minutes.The lead changed hands again as that man Shaw, surely a close second to Lawson for man of the match, scored again by the posts, which he converted to make the score read 19-14 to Sutton.The pitch worsened and changes of personnel were rapid as youngster Jacob Keeling came on into the pack, managed a couple of scrums, a short trundle before going off again saying it was too cold for him to continue. Oh where are the team mates you can rely on when the going gets tough or cold, with certain players playing on through the pain barrier and age barrier!!!! Perhaps the rugby gods took a dim view as again Silhillians took the lead with a converted try taking advantage of Sutton's indiscipline to turn a series of penalties into territory and ultimately 7 points. 21-19 to the visitors with minutes remaining and the mud dragging at every sinew a penalty for Sutton and surely salvation as they snatched victory from the muddy jaws of defeat and put behind them the chaos of a similar situation that arose against Old Salts.earlier in the season? Cool as you like Shaw wins it for the home team by one point!!! But no defeat wants victory back and snatches it back in the form of a penalty for offside and that gentlemen and ladies encapsulates Sutton's third team, like the weather in a very muddy 80 minutes. Great game though , played in atrocious weather. As the weather got worse the game got better. Hats off to all who played and the ref and the really brave supporters. Until next time folks that's it. Thanks and goodbye.