Sutton Scramble Up To Fourth

Sutton welcomed Ludlow to a windy and overcast RSG for the final league game of the year hoping o build on an impressive and promising upsurge in recent form. Looking to go to fourth in the league, Sutton took advantage of the strong and gusty wind to pin their opponents deep in their own territory for much of the first half.
Sutton were definitely having the best of the exchanges without ever really flowing forward as they can when everyone is on song. For the third game running the home team's scrum was almost totally dominant, pushing Ludlow off their own ball and easily retaining the ball on the home team's put in.However the other aspects of Sutton's game certainly didn't gel as well as usual- the forwards' rocking and mauling were not at their clinical best and much of the backs' passion involved a lot of literal movement. When it all clicked to good effect a total of 6 tries were run in.
Returning wanderer Ian Evans was the first on the score sheet as he surged onto good play in the backs to run straight for the line , going in under the posts, Chris King successful with the extras, 7-0 to the men in the green. Shortly afterward the trick was replicated with fellow centre Mark McEvoy striding over under the sticks for King to convert and Sutton were sitting pretty at 14-0.There followed a fairly moribund passage of playing with Ludlow making rare incursions into Sutton's territory and Sutton disrupting their flow with basic errors all over the park. As ever, class shines through with loose head Mark Baines picking up a loose ball before flicking out a delicious, delicate pass to the equally delicious, delicate second row James Hearty!!!!! who strolled to the line, 19-0.The conversion was unsuccessful, the rest of the half largely uneventful, meaning the teams turned round at half time with the home team 19 points to the good.
A raft of changes was made at half time, with Scott Toy making a welcome return, apart from this reporter, as he replaced him at tight head!!!! Veteran Nobby Britain also returned after missing a few games and to compensate had an easy ride at second row instead of his customary position in the boilerhouse of the front row!!! Dom Morphet also played the second half as did club stalwart Stu McGarragle
With the wind ät their backs Ludlow made a better fist of it in the second stanza sorting a converted and unconverted try for 12 points. Sutton continued to misfire but were still good enough to score 3 more tries, the best of which was James King finishing off a flowing backs' move in the left hand corner. Baines was also on hand to leap out of the ruck to claim a try his endeavour deserved, he also engaged in his favourite pastime of playing skittles with the opposition forwards his ninepins.In fact along with Vaughan Browne's efforts, they probably shared the man of the match honours. Hooker Steve Marshall also waltzed over from a metre for a fine individual try!!! King converted his hardest kick of the day and that was it, Sutton 36 Ludlow 12.The other notable event of the half was a cumulative team card received by Tom Foulsham as a result of 4 or 5 penalties conceded in horribly quick fashion in their own 5 metres, a little harsh but if he conceded them all not so harsh after all!!!!
So where does that leave the third team, apart from 4th!!!After a tipsy turvy start to the season the squad deems relatively settled albeit with variable availability each week, due to the proximity of the NEC etc. That together with some returning faces has led to greater cohesion as evidenced in the recent convincing results and hopefully the New Year will be a prosperous one for all those in the squad and the team itself. Thank you and goodbye 2013.