Early Season Success for Sutton

For the second year running Whittington were the early season visitors to Walmley Road, this time as opposition to Sutton 3s. With a big squad available prospects looked good on a dry if cloudy afternoon. However true to form, Whittington pounced on an errror straight from the kick off to make ground in the home 22 through a series of meandering mauls, lineouts, knock ons and penalties to take a deserved if untidy 5 point lead which they held until Sutton were finally able to get hold of the ball. The play shifted to the Whittington half as they bravely tried to hold back the green tide slowly advancing owards them!! Overpowered in the scrums and mauls the pressure finally told as Dan Wells scampered for the line, kicked on and touched down with newly converted kicker Pete Dale taking the extras. In fact Dale was to have a good afternoon as he slotted a penalty shortly afterwards to increase the lead to 10-3 and went on to tot up a sizeable personal tally as he also scored a later try and succeeded with all his kicks.
Dan Wells was having sich an influential afternoon that he looked odds on to pick up the man of the match award, such as it is but shortly after his try the previous night's overindulgence took hold of him and he spent most of the remainder of the match frrtilizing yhe long grass 2 pitches away!!
He was replaced at scrum half by a young Chris Duckworth, known for evermore as Duckling as the narrtor of this sorry tail. takes seniority in the moniker department!! His first contribution was to stumble like a newborn giraffe towards the line and was thankful for veteran Matt Lawson who strolled to the line for Sutton's second try. Dale converted making the score 17-5. In a typical first , first half of the season good play was interspersed with the mundane but most of the good was from the home team with solid performances from youngster Tom Davies and old stagers such as Tom Foulsham and Mark McEvoy who contributed hugely to a fine flowing move that culminated in Pete Dale's try under the sticks which he converted to make the half time score Sutton 24 Whittington 10. It must also be added that Mike Clarke had a fine first hald at stand off.
And so the second half. If possible it was even more disjointed than the first half but from a Sutton point of view hardly surprising as mass changes were made to the home team. The personnel in the scrum changed as the oncoming Rab Cooper and Andy Duckworth added a few extra pounds to an already dominant set piece. At some point Tom Foulsham went to hook and the ever versatile Duckworth was ousted from his tight head berth by Scott Toy.
Whittington plugged away with a player in pink shorts particularly prominent!! Indeed they probably scored the try of the match, certainly the individual try of the match, as the centre kicked on over the lumbering dinosaurs of the Sutton pack, collected he ball and trotted over for a good try. Further tries were scored by Foulsham benefiting from a stunning turn of pace from Ed Moore, McEvoy who galloped through a motorway sized gap and Matt Mannion who did likewise as the ball was rather startlingly, for Matt anyway, kicked straight at him
Two tries were converted and the final score was Sutton 43 Whittington 20.
For a first run out of the season it was a decent game and all credit to Whittington who plugged away right to the end and their send off to the Sutton team at the end was the loudest and most sustained heard for many a season!!
Well done too, Steve Marshall for his captaincy and organisation before and after the match.