Captain’s Foreword

(by Sam Akerman)

What a whole team effort from the ladies, from Rachel and Nina playing for Crowthorne so that we could carry on playing a competitive game, to the new players gaining confidence to get themselves on the pitch, to the experienced players guiding the newbies through the game! The

ladies delivered everything I asked and more, we switched on right from the start and dug deep the whole game! I’m really looking forward to getting some more of the newbies onto the team sheet over the next few games and continuing to build momentum!

Thank you to the coaches, Steve and everybody that came to support! We really appreciate it!

Far out in the uncharted backwaters (Loudwater/Wycombe border) of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun...

(by Louise Payne)

...that sun shone down on the mead and the dreams of the High Wycombe Belles but the reality was to be a far greater experience!

The Thorns won the toss, so first off the blocks with a kick into the blazing sunshine, they were also first into a scrum but the force of our pack was too strong - they lost possession and we were off soon to be try scoring wizards so early in the match.

In the spirit of sharing we had lent a player (Dr. Rachel) to the travelling Thorns when one of their players went off with a nasty ankle injury  - but they had also been out on an early morning round up, lassoing a full back who scored their first try.

The Belles had been working hard on rucking and ball presentation and wow - what a show of force, the forwards attacking rugby has grown in strength and momentum, with the winner of the Gumshield (Nina Schembri Burch) putting in a class display of technical rucking throughout her time on the pitch.

The girls started to yield a clutch of tries: Evie King (Back of the match) bagged two with a conversion to boot. Her running lines, her determination and perseverance drove the game forward and she was key when opening up the game with passes out to the backs and creating space. Harvey Kaur (Forward of the match), never one to shy away from a tackle or two, again showed the opposition that they should be fearful and this was never more obvious when she was charging down a ball carrier on the wing and very quickly she offloaded, which led to a fantastic steal. Lisa Fitzpatrick, my what quick legs you’ve got, my what straight lines you run, my what a mighty fine try scorer you are, great support play, always ready on the shoulders of giants (awesome forwards obviously). Roxanne Humphreys is a dream weaving, low tackling, body blocking, leg pumping try scoring hooking beaut!

The marvellous ever-growing Belles welcomed Louise Anderson and Lauren Dudley, they debute like trojans, battling for the ball, making ground and fantastic ball handling skills!

Jodie Hope, Becky "Blue gloves" Bristow both played out of position, with immense skill and determination. Elsbeth Pearlman put on a masterclass for all newcomers and in the process tried to demonstrate maybe you don’t need both eyes to play?!

Both coaches Marcella and Nick were down to their last finger nail, when the score levelled in the last minutes of the game, Harvey had crashed over the try line and all that was left was to convert, too easy eh?

Now, we all have that one time when opportunity knocks, ready or not and we have to choose. Changing to the other end of the pitch because of an injury and the sun still doing its best to blind those that had ventured out to support (what a gorgeous bunch I will add)

Lee Danagher steps up for the kick of her life (a little dramatic I know but go with it, its 32-32), she steps back, looks up, then goes for it – to say it was a close shave would be an understatement but over is over.

The High Wycombe Belles were winners…

With thanks to the whole team, coaches and supporters (and their dogs)

Final score: 34-32

Date of next fixture: 11/11/2018