Marlborough v Buckingham
On The Common, kick-off 2:30
Big match at The Common on Saturday, Marlborough Rugby could clinch early promotion with a further four matches still to play.
Visitors to The Common are Buckingham, currently sitting bottom of the league. This is a rearranged match from November when the weather was too bad for Buckingham to travel and, while it’s never prudent to forecast a win, ever, form indicates that Marlborough should win. But that can’t ever be assumed in advance.
What’s the likelihood of achieving promotion on Saturday?
Getting technical: were Marlborough to suffer defeat at the hands of Buckingham by more than seven points, and second-placed Stow-on-the-Wold were to win with a bonus point, then promotion would almost be assured on the basis of performance across the season with points difference deciding. If Marlborough were to lose by less than seven points, then they would get a losing bonus point which would ensure top spot in the league at the end of the season.
Confused? Could be, easily. But win or draw then Marlborough will win the league. Lose, by less than seven points, they will still win unless they ship an enormous number of points in these last five matches and aren’t able to score. But get a single point in the remaining four matches after Saturday, top spot would be guaranteed.
Promotion – where to? After the current ‘Regional 2 Tribute South Central of South West’ division, the next level up would mean welcoming Rugby Royalty to The Common. Marlborough Rugby would be competing in ‘Regional 1 South Central’ division, and as well as facing good established sides such as Wimbledon, Oxford Quins and Maidenhead, in that division are London Welsh – a real heritage club who were in the professional English Premiership in the 2012-13 and 2014-15 seasons, so in the top league only nine seasons ago.
And London Welsh are one of the great British sides of the past fifty or so years, and seven of whose players (still a record for any one club) went to New Zealand on the British Lions tour of 1971 when the All Blacks lost the series. So yes, ‘Rugby Royalty’ will possibly visit The Common next season.
So let’s hope that Marlborough clinch promotion tomorrow (Saturday) and can then look forward to getting stretched against some of the bigger teams in the Country next season.
Kick-off on The Common is 2:30, crowds have been getting steadily larger as the team has become ever more successful, and also now, thanks to sponsor Gigaclear all spectators can tell what the score is at any time thanks to the recently-installed new electronic scoreboard.
Saturday’s weather forecast is reasonable, warm(ish) for February, likely dry as no rain forecast during the afternoon but it could be a bit windy
So come along and cheer Marlborough Rugby all the way to London Welsh and the other bigger clubs in the next division up……
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