Marlborough 61 – 24 Buckingham
On Saturday, Marlborough welcomed Buckingham to The Common for the return game in the Tribute South West 1 East league. Conditions for once were quite pleasant, Springlike, but still with a slight bite to the breeze. The ground conditions were drying all the time, almost 7s conditions but would there be any 7s flair within the game?
As has become the norm for this season, a different team was again put out, and with a few new faces. Elisi put together a squad which contained nine players who have come up through the ranks, starting in the minis. Debutante, Arthur Allen (17 years old) was given his first experience in the backs for the 1st XV.
Marlborough started strongly with second row player, Tommy Elbrow, opening the scoring within five minutes of the whistle going with an unconverted try.
Marlborough started to become a little too keen, and they tried to force the game a little which then led to some silly mistakes which were exploited by Buckingham, well until Solodrau Radianrova (Solo) broke away to score his first try of the day, which was unconverted.
On twenty minutes, Solo followed this up with another blistering run to score his second try of the day which was converted by Will Grant.
Buckingham were still very much in the game and managed to put their own points on the board and scored on thirty minutes which went unconverted
Almost immediately, Marlborough struck back from the restart, with Viliame Waqanidrova (Qila), showing some good individual skills, leading onto scoring a rather nice try, but again it was unconverted.
The front row was feeling a little left out as the backs were taking all the glory, so Solomone Aniseko (Seko) decided to take matters into his own hands, he made a powerful run, resulting with him grounding the ball over the line, scoring a converted try with help from Will Grant.
Marlborough were now starting to take control of the game, scoring a further two try’s in two minutes from Viliame Waqanidrova (Qila) and Solodrau Radianrova (Solo), sadly both unconverted.
With the last play of the first half, Buckingham scored an unconverted try due to Marlborough struggling to defend a lineout maul, but Marlborough were the ones ending the first half with their tails up.
Half Time: Marlborough 39 – Buckingham 10
Buckingham started the second half strongly, with Marlborough again guilty of numerous unforced errors, but somehow the home side managed to keep Buckingham out of the scoring zone. Dylan Jimenez scored an unconverted try, ten minutes into the second half. Shortly afterwards, there was another Marlborough try from Ben Wilmot which was converted by Jimmy Adams.
To their credit, Buckingham were still putting up some strong defence, but with ten minutes to go, Joe Pittams scored in the corner, again unconverted.
Buckingham quickly struck back with a try of their own, but Marlborough wasn’t finished, there was still time for another try. Solodrau Radianrova (Solo) made a break, offloading to Joe Pittams, who beat two opposition players to score an unconverted try. With the last play of the game, Buckingham got a converted try, earning themselves a very well-deserved bonus point.
Final Score: Marlborough 61 – Buckingham 24.
Team Manager, Dave Pittams beamed “this was an encouraging performance from a relatively young Marlborough team. Eight players were between the ages of 17-23. Again, very well led by acting Captain, James Marshall, standing in for the injured Club Captain, Ben Fulton”.
There are only two more games left in this season. Tomorrow, the 1st XV are away to Chippenham, kick off at 3.00 pm. This is going to be a very tight game as currently, Chippenham lie in eighth position, one place above Marlborough. The home side are going to want revenge as they lost when they came to the Common, back in December. This will be a good local derby and one both sides will want to win.
Finishing Line in sight for Ogbourne St Andrew’s ‘Silks on the Downs’
