Park House FC

Remember the 1st Rocky movie, where he's up against Apollo Creed ? Well, it was a bit like that, with the class & pedigree of Charlton Park being brought to the underdogs backyard at P. House.

Inside round one C. Park showed that class with a well taken lineout & a break coming from their 10/12 channel for the 1st try.

P.H. took it on the chin well, went back up the pitch, & after several minutes earnt themselves a penalty, unfortunately going wide, but a little bit of order as heads cleared from the earlier heavy punch.
The next blow was dealt by the home side when well worked forwards ball was spread wide to the right &, I think it was Craig, coming from full back who went over, converted by Sweats, & for the only time in the match, Park House took the lead. ( Remember that, because it shows what we NEARLY achieved by the end )

C. Parks best tactics were driving through the channels either at the ruck, or in an area 10metres around it & they gained a lot of ground. Make no mistake, they are a well drilled outfit, & it was from a series of these drives that they eventually earnt themselves a lineout 15metres from PH's bottom corner near the clubhouse, & their affable, but hard working openside broke through the line & jinked his way over for an unconverted score, 7-10 C. Park ( By the way, I know he was an "affable" bloke, because amazingly, I bumped into him in Inferno's in Clapham at about 2am that night!!!!) Weird huh ?

That's how the half finished, but just like the Rocky/Apollo dual, Apollo became more frustrated as the complete underdog, with bags of grit & guts, refused to stay down. A good chat at half time & PH knew they could live with the opposition so long as they could stay on their feet.

A little disappointing then, that immediately from the restart, the receiving C. Park player was allowed to break tackles & took the ball all the way back to the try line, offloading for a further score, converted, 5-17 C. Park

At that score, against this kind of outfit, it could all so easily have gone wrong, but the pack dug deep, stole a lineout here, a couple of scrums there, forced the opposition scrum half to start feeding, resulting in ground, & possession gaining penalties, & Park started to dominate. Possession became crucial, & it was lovely to see the pack, combining with the midfield in a whole series of rucks & mauls, before Rob Hart eventually crashed over for a great team try, 12-17 C. Park

Whatever Rocky's abilities to stay in the bout, Apollo had the skills, but not the answers, as somehow C.Park spurned two try scoring chances that could have sealed the game, SOOOOO, let Rocky off & he'll hurt you.

Park House rucked, mauled, kicked, broke gain lines & eventually moved the ball back to the C. Park try line, where patience, belief & basic decision making saved the day. The pack held the ball in on a maul, Sweaty went right & drew the attention of a couple of defenders, the defence were hoodwinked into believing a crash ball was coming, Softley fed open to Frost, Gravesy went on the dummy, Millar timed his run onto the wide pall to perfection, offloaded to Pat, who stepped around his man & over the line. Another beautifully manufactured team try, emanating from hard graft up front, the right number of ruck/mauls & space being created. Unconverted 17-17, with about 6 minutes to go.

Neither side could find the final knock out blow, they'd spent 80 minutes trying that, so it all ended in a creditable draw, &, I have to say, lots of respect being shown by both sides, as, like the 1's, this was also our toughest game to date, but if we can live with C. P. then we deserve to be in this table, underdogs or not, & I think we may be causing a few ripples of concern as the weeks go on.

No man of the match from me, that's Kev's job, but Pat was great up front & in the loose, as was Rob Hart & Kev himself. Sweat's control as always, & Craig had a great game, improving week by week on his return from injury. Notable mention to Andy Millar, again playing out of position.
( Both P. H. centres got a notable mention from the opposition - hah ! There, didn't think I'd let THAT go did you !!! )