BANBURY 1ST XV 5-7 BEACONSFIELD A
Banbury U13s hosted the Bucks club on Sunday in the first Juniors game of their "careers". The 1st XV took on the visitors' A team in a County Champions showdown. The standard and physicality of the rugby was of the highest order especially bearing in mind the novelty of 15 man rugby on a full size pitch for these lads.

Banbury took the game to Beac piling on the pressure for the first 10 minutes of the game. But the visitors' defence held and it was they who struck the first blow launching an attack from their own 22. A clever move saw the ball arrive at their lightning fast winger who took it up to the Banbury 22. He was eventually hauled down but made the ball available to his tracking support player who happily ran it in under the posts. The conversion was duly kicked and this proved significant.

Banbury seemed deflated by this harsh turnaround and it took a little while for them to regain the ascendancy. However, they pressured again and Ben Parker was only denied a try in the corner by a foot in touch. Unfortunately, the blue and whites also showed their inexperience turning down kickable points on a couple of occasions to tap and go only to be snaffled by the well organised Beac defence. Eventually, however, the territorial advantage was turned into points as Tom Bacon made a lovely break after joining the line from full back, collecting the ball and touching down. The kick however went astray from Toby but we were back in the game.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first with Banbury exerting the pressure but finding no way through the solid Beac defence. As the game wore on however, the home side bore down on the line with more purpose and the forwards built a maul on the visitors' 22 which they trucked all the way to the 5m line. But yet again, Beac's determination prevented the ball cleanly finding its way into Banbury hands and they won the ensuing scrum to clear their lines impressively. What turned out to be Banbury's final chance fell to Ben P after decent hands down the line. It looked like the winning try but a great covering tackle sent our winger into touch at the corner flag. Thereafter, the visitors used the wind to kick astutely for territory and secure the win.

What a fantastic game of rugby, played in a great spirit. Territorially, the home side held sway but our inexperience allied to a real gutsy performance from all the Beaconsfield team earned them the win. Their dangerous backs were always threatening with their half backs reading the game well. Their forwards were good at identifying turnovers and sufficiently stubborn to deny the Banbury forwards many significant inroads. The bigger picture is more important than the result, however, and to have the better of one of the best sides in the South should be seen as a positive. We know what we have to work on, as do Beaconsfield, and we expect another cracker next time we meet.

BANBURY 2ND XV 17-17 BEACONSFIELD B
[/I]"Scorers today were Alex Wilton, Oli Broughton and Ciaran Caulfield. All played well on their XV debut on a full size pitch as did new scrum half Huw Reece. The forwards scrummaged, rucked and mauled as asked and the backs kept their shape and attacked beautifully when given the ball. The defence was solid and the character and tenacity of the whole squad was a credit to themselves"[/i] Nigel.

NEWBIES
We welcome two players thus far this season with Alex Wilton and Huw Reece both joining. Good to get some new blood and both lads made impressive starts on Sunday. Obviously, we would be more than happy to see more new faces as our current squad of 37 isn't quite big enough to safely field two teams each week. If we can get to 40, it would open up more fixture possibilities, so spread the word.

OXON SCHOOL OF RUGBY
Assessments took place over the Summer and after a lengthy selection process the following players were successful and will be attending County training during the course of the season:-
Tom Bacon
Alfie Barbeary
Tom Chesser
Harry Gardner
Ben Parker
Toby Parker
Hector Stapleton

NEXT WEEK
Training at Bodicote Park 10-12.00