A View from JJ’s Bank

Caldy 1st xv result – Hartpury 40 – 24 Caldy  
Match report – Luke Jarmyn, The Rugby Paper

Hartpury…….40pts
Tries: Hunt 11, penalty 17, 56, McArthur 22, Morgan 27, Rees 69
Conversions: Bazalgette 12, 23, 28

Caldy……… 24pts
Tries: Royle 23, Gallagher 64, 79, penalty 74
Conversions: Barker 80

Hartpury survived three late yellow cards in a highly charged encounter against Caldy to secure their third league win in a row. Hooker Ethan Hunt, loosehead Archie McArthur, full-back Alex Morgan and tighthead Joe Rees all crossed the whitewash for the West Country side in a scrappy fixture marred by a first-half brawl and six sin-bins.

Hartpury coach John Barnes said: “I’m pleased with the win but that wasn’t a very good game of rugby, the ill-discipline from both sides was evident. It made it a stop-start game with lots of yellow cards and stoppages, so it wasn’t the best spectacle. It’s an important win for us and there were some positives, our forwards laid a great platform with their physicality and Josiah Edwards-Giraud showed why he deserved a starting spot in both attack and defence.”

In surprisingly mild conditions Hartpury dominated early on, utilising their scrum and pinning Caldy deep in their own half. From a lineout 15 metres out, Hartpury recycled quickly for Hunt to dive over the try line. The home side’s forwards were imperious, another catch-and-drive move led to the reds being awarded a penalty try with Caldy hooker Ollie Hearn yellow-carded for trying to stop the maul illegally. Hartpury capitalised when McArthur bundled over with Harry Short in support but Caldy pulled one back with a magical Mike Cartmill head-butt setting-up veteran Nick Royle to slide over. Quick passes by Harry Bazalgette and Edwards-Giraud set up Morgan to dash over for the bonus-point try, before being sin-binned for choice words leading to a 20-man brawl.

Under poor light, Ravers’ orange shirts stood out after half-time but they were on the back foot and a great piece of Hartpury running play led to a penalty try and blind-side Sam Olyott seeing yellow for a late tackle. At the hour-mark Caldy were in the ascendancy and as a well worked line-out broke-up hooker Matt Gallagher shimmied and side-stepped to score between the sticks. Rees dotted down from a lineout move on the 69th minute but then it was all Ravers.

Wing Oli Holliday was sin-binned four minutes later for stopping a quick throw-in, and the ensuing lineout in the far-left corner saw Rees yellow carded for illegally stopping a maul and Caldy awarded a penalty try. Wing Jack Johnson was sin-binned for a high tackle with Gallagher bundling over by the left post for Caldy’s bonus point try.

HARTPURY: Morgan 6, Johnson 6, Edwards-Giraud 9 (Denty 56, 5), Smith 7 (Adderly-Jones 65, 5), Holliday 6, Bazalgette 8, Austin 8 (Jones 65); McArthur 8 (Gibbons 70, 5), Hunt 7 (Crane 60, 5), J Benz-Salomon 8 (Rees 60, 5), Cobbett 7, Davies (c) 7 (Richards-Farr 70, 5), Lewis 6, Short 7 (Minto 60, 5), Hayler 6

CALDY: Wills 5, Royle 7 (Kilcourse 63, 5), Wilkinson 7, Barlow 6 (Bedlow 63, 5), Cartmill 8, Barker 6, Wynn 8 (Murray 63, 5); Weatherby 6 (Aigbokhae 55, 5), Hearn 5 (Gallagher 55, 8), Rushton 6 (Higginson 55, 6), Steenson 5, Sproston 5 (Riley 58, 5), Olyott 6 (Ridgway 67, 5.5), Woodman 8, J Dickinson (c) 6

Referee : Mike Hudson    Attendance: 902   
The Rugby Paper Star player Joshua Edwards-Giraud -Hartpury

 u17s Junior Colts result – Caldy 46 – 20 Lymm
Match report – Paul Clark
“Caldy Junior Colts continued their good run of form with a resounding 46-20 win over Lymm to take them to 2nd place in Halbro NW League A. Having beaten Lymm away earlier in the season in a one point nail biter, the Colts knew they needed to be at their best to beat last season’s Cheshire Cup winners Lymm.

Caldy were on the attack from the off, rewarded with an early penalty from Jamie Arista. Number 8, Louis Hayes-Green, then powered over for the first of his two tries from a blind side scrum move. Having spotted a gap in Lymm’s back line, a fantastic well flighted box-kick and chase from scrum-half Dylan Jones saw him score our second try. Lymm to their credit battled their way back into the game with some hard running, and the Colts were pinged a number of times for being off-side. Our defence was finally breached and we went in at half time 22-10 up.

The second half started well with an early try for speedster winger Adam Jones who kicked a loose ball through, gathered and sprinted in from the half way line. The backs continued to turn on the gas in the second half with further tries from Ruben Smith, Rob Waring and another for Adam Jones. Lymm continued to put us under pressure with the wind behind them and scored 2 more tries of their own.

Despite Lymm’s pressure, Caldy’s pace and power ultimately shone through to give the Colts back to back wins in League A. Next up is Whitchurch which promises to be another enthralling contest at Paton Field. Please come up and cheer the lads on at 12:30 next Sunday !”

Images – Barry Macdonald

Touch Rugby – Caldy Cobras v Otters Touch training games
It was a cold night, but that didn’t stop play as Caldy Cobras hosted their friends from Otters Touch last Tuesday for a series of 3 games. The quality of Touch Rugby was exceptional. Try for try across all 3 games. Caldy Cobras fielded a full squad. Normal rules are 14 in a team but like the Otters, Caldy Cobras fielded 18 players meaning for the first time we had a squad of 3 pods of 6, as it was training.

What made this really special was Caldy Cobras had a youth pod of 6 lads : Stan Addyman, Oliver Gibson, Josh Greig, Frankie Wheeler, Toby Smith and Josh Hughes. This was the first time all 6 lads played in Cobras colours and it was absolutely brilliant to watch. And they were supported so well by our seniors players who played some of the best composed Touch rugby against a very strong Otters team.

Development of the Touch section is always ongoing so if there are other players in the Community section, both male and female, who want to train and play, they would be more than welcome.

Also last Friday was our first ever Caldy Touch Rugby Awards night !
Congratulations go to :
Ladies Captain’s MVP…Caroline Prosser 
Mens Captain’s MVP…James Finch
Player’s Player…Mark Rainer
Coach’s Men’s MIP and Squad Contribution…Dan Hughes 
Outstanding Commitment and technical improvement…Sharon Hay
Coach’s Ladies MIP…Polly Pattinson 
Caldy Referee…Charles Ryder
Squad’s appreciations to Shaun Thomas & Andy Sharpes.
Outstanding Contribution Award…Mark Rainer 
Special thanks to Alice Gregan and Katy Smith for the relaunch of ladies social, Adam Christenson for leading Wednesday night socials and Shaun Thomas for establishing the Juniors training sessions.

Reports & Images – Andy Sharpes 

Rugby coming up next weekend : 
Caldy 1st xv at Paton Field Saturday 7th December
The Championship
Caldy v Cornish Pirates kick off 2.00pm
Tickets for Caldy v Cornish Pirates can be bought here via our club website :
https://caldyrugbyclub.com/buy-tickets-membership/

Caldy 2nd xv away Saturday 7th December
Halbro NW Bathtime Premier League
Preston Grasshoppers v Caldy kick off 2.00pm 

Caldy Rav3rs at Paton Field Saturday 7th December
Halbro NW The Bay Travel Div 3 West 
Caldy v Ruskin Park kick off 2.00pm

Caldy u18s away Sunday 8th December
Halbro NW Senior Colts League A
Ormskirk v Caldy kick off 2.00pm 

Caldy u17s at Paton Field Sunday 8th December
Halbro NW Junior Colts League A  
Caldy v Whitchurch kick off 12.30pm