The Mighty (22) - Mistley II (12)

As suspected, they were heavy up front, with some strength to contend with. Their pack drove forward, time and time again, straight through the middle. Our boys fought valiantly in defense, only allowing a small trundle from their hulk-like pack. But, a lot of small trundles can make a lot of ground, and without much warning we continued to find ourself on the back foot. It's a good job they had some (misplaced) confidence in their backs, had the ball been kept up front, we may have conceded a few more points.

Their back line tried to contend with ours, but discovered that we were a defensive force to be reckoned with. This resulted in frequently kicking down the field to make ground, only to meet either the touch line or our full back. And back it came, either via a half pitch sprint from Jamie Worne, or from one of the many line-outs, which were a particularly strong feature of our game, winning both our own and the opposing line (when they threw a straight one). Both Kai Danielsen and Fraser Goldie had blinding games, winning countless balls.

When we got our sh** together there was some strong forward play, an equal contest for their brutish pack, achieving some clean ball for our back line. With Jacobs at outside centre no one expected to get the ball all the way to wing, but we did (once or twice).

The standout try of the match came from a quick tap and go from Duncan John, passed to me, I gave Peter Jordan one of the most inept passes seen to date, but with many many (many) years of experience, PJ effortlessly scooped up the ball and flung down the line, looping round to take the outside, and run in a try with a 30 yard dash. If only we could all be as graceful and agile as our starting No10.

Both halfs were a firecly fought battle of equal skill and ability. Some lucky breaks won us the game and some equally unlucky errs lost us a stack load of points.

We almost managed to secure Brian Barnard his first try, but this was disallowed due to the second worst pass of the match, (arguably) passed forward by the skipper (who, I should add, is usually a bloody excellent player!). The ref almost gave the try, but decided that Matty Clarke's indecision as touch judge cast some doubt on the quality of the pass (maybe it was just too good to have been true!) and took us back for a scrum.

Another try went amiss after our winger chased an excellently placed kick. The distance could not have been sweeter, our winger outpaced their chasers, the ball bounced over their try line, it didn't go dead, all we had to do was fall on it... and with that came butter fingers. Jez Holmes, we thought you had learnt to catch the ball, in fact, evidence of this was seen only moments before, and was even followed by a chorus of "oh f**k, he actually caught it". But on this occasion, under pressure, old habits kicked in and the ball bounced off the finger tips and bimbled forwards. No try! (Dick of the Day!)

As play drew to a close, the aggression mounted and injuries started to interfere with play, reducing the Mistely numbers in their already depleted scrum. The exit of their prop, with a gash to the head, ended the game, and signaled a Mighty victory.

An early shout for man of the match, after 12 years off the field, was Jamie Worne. You had an excellent game mate. But, in order to claim such a coveted award from the Mighty, you must be in the club house when the award is presented, so to help out, PJ stepped in to accept the award on your behalf and gave us a good head start in the boat race.

Unfortunately, it transpires, not only can Jez not catch a cold, he can't drink a beer either. The boat race was was ashamedly lost to the opposition.

For all home matches we are introducing a 5th chair to the match awards, which will be fondly known as "The Jez Holmes School for Disadvantaged Drinking Partners". It will be taken by Jez until he learns how to down a pint, and can then be nominated out by former students to those in need.

Well done again boys.