Match Reports Jan05

On Saturday Grove gained revenge for their away loss to Beaconsfield in which they believed they were robbed of victory by a dreadful refereeing decision that disallowed them the winning try. This time there was no dispute and the game was superbly refereed throughout. Once again Grove were overall the better side despite still being short of a number of key squad members and ran out winners at 13 : 8. Grove started strongly and were unlucky not to score when first flanker Carl Alder almost made the line followed by prop Robin Smith just being stopped short. The opening score however came from Nick Sevier who returned in the outside centre position following a fairly long absence due to injury. In pretty awful conditions the ball was won by the home team forwards just outside their own 22 metre area, passed out to Nick Sevier by brother and fly half Roger Sevier from where Sevier senior ripped the opposition to pieces with an incredibly fast and mazy run that left Beaconsfield defenders scattered and beaten all over the place. Just short of the line the ball was passed out to wing Guy Nicholl, who drew the remaining opposition then passed back to Sevier who glided over the try line for a touch down in the corner. Roger Sevier converted to put the hosts 7 : 0 up. Beaconsfield came back strongly with some very aggressive forward play and Grove were lucky not to concede a try following a series of poor passes and dropped balls by their backs. The result of Grove's many mistakes at this time was a penalty award which the visitors duly slotted to take the score to 7 : 3. Several more penalties were given away by Grove which luckily for the home side did not result in any further scoring from Beaconsfield. Roger Sevier then scored 3 points from a penalty awarded to Grove to make the half time score 10 : 3. The second half progressed fairly evenly with Grove's No. 8 Jamie Fredericks and hooker Steve Dixey being replaced due to injuries by Jason Whyte and Dan Bashford respectively. The next and final score for Grove came from another Roger Sevier penalty which took the hosts to 13 : 3. Due mainly to the poor weather and some apparent lapses of concentration many more handling mistakes ensued and it was Beaconsfield who scored next when following a penalty move their full back went over in the corner for a very good try to produce the final match score of 13 : 8. Towards the end Grove's prop Richard Keen was yellow carded and didn't make it back before the end of the game which meant that yet again in this fixture passive scrummaging was ordered although only one scrum was so affected.

Grove 2nds beat Didcot away by 17 : 12 with Grove's scores coming from Jimmy Wallbridge (2 trys), Tom Beauchamp (1 try) and Ryan Martin (1 conversion).

Grove 3rds lost at home to Chinnor 4ths by 16 : 20 when the opposition team snatched victory right at the end of the game. Grove's scorers were Steve Coad (1 try) and Patrick Allen (1 conversion + 3 penalties).

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Match Report - 12th January 2008 - First XV - Grove have to take it on the Chinnor

Not unsurprisingly a much depleted Grove 1st team, missing at least five regulars, went down heavily to South West 1 high fliers Chinnor on Saturday, who pretty much fielded their best first team for the match. Chinnor started very strongly scoring the first of 12 trys within the first 3 minutes and from there on the trys came at pretty regular intervals. The final scoreline of 82 -13 was bolstered by phenomenal conversion kicking from the Chinnor fly half who slotted 11 of the 12 conversions taken although the Chinnor scoreboard operator got it wrong and credited him with all 12!

The Grove players who turned out deserve much credit for a very gutsy performance throughout the game as their heads never went down against an obviously superior team who played at a speed Grove are not used to although towards the end of the game it was clear that they had given their all and Chinnor's better fitness allowed them to run in a series of easy trys before the final whistle. In particular Grove flanker Lee Wright stood out in the forwards playing as tenacious a game as has been seen from any Grove player for a long time. He constantly tore into the Chinnor pack causing them grief on every occasion. Other players of special note were lock Zach Grant, winning many line out balls and veteran hooker Jon North who actually took one scrum against the head and won every one of his own scrums. The entire pack of Grove forwards it has to be said were great, holding if not actually pushing the Chinnor pack backwards in the set scrums and causing mayhem whenever they could.

In the backs Roger Sevier, standing in for injured scrum half Paul Maryon, stood out with a series of monster touch kicks and actually set up Grove's only try when he completely destroyed his opposite number's possession from a Chinnor scrum in the home side's 22 metre area. The loose ball was then hacked on by Sevier for flanker Guy Nicholl to pounce on for the points but foul play from Chinnor prevented this and Grove were rightly awarded a penalty try instead. Sevier also scored all of Grove's other points with the penalty try conversion and two penalties from two. Unfortunately Grove's No. 8 Jamie Frederick and then fly half Nick Sevier had to retire early with injuries but it was good to see replacement Dave Johnson come back after injury.

1. Robin Smith (Capt)
2. Jon North
3. Dan Bashford
4. Paul Harpwood
5. Zach Grant
6. Lee Wright
7. Guy Nichol
8. Jamie Frederick
9. Roger Sevier
10. Nick Sevier
11. Ashley Lane
12. Ben Law
13. Simon Peel
14. Jack Alder
15. Dave Maryon

Dave Johnson (replaced Nick Sevier)
Mark Tugwell (replaced Guy Nicholl)
James Kerr (replaced Jamie Fredericks)
Shaun Sherwood (replaced Jon North)
Dave Stoner (Not used)

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Although still not at full strength due to a couple of key players recovering from injury Grove were surprisingly beaten 39 : 15 by lowly Newbury Stags at Newbury on Saturday. Stags who are currently bottom but one in the league and who have suffered often very heavy defeats from virtually every other team in the league, including Grove, turned in a league performance which was easily the toughest Grove have had to face all season from any other team. In reality the only harder match Grove have had to play was against Chinnor 1st's in the Oxfordshire Cup.

Stags had the game effectively won within the first ten minutes by running in three spectacular tries at lightning speed and with extremely deft handling amongst their backs. One try was converted to put them 17 : 0 in front. At this stage Grove had hardly touched the ball at all. After establishing this phenomenal superiority Newbury seemed to ease off and Grove got back into the game thanks to a very good try by fly half Nick Sevier after he passed to centre and captain Dave Johnson, looped, then took the return pass to run in the try which brother Roger converted to take the score to 17 : 7. Grove got 3 points closer with a penalty from Roger Sevier but Newbury went further ahead with a converted try to make the half-time score 22 : 10.

Newbury stepped up their performance again in the second half and scored two very good tries to take the score to 36 : 10 before Nick Sevier launched into a long solo run which saw him beat the opposition defence for speed and score near the corner. The try went unconverted and the score moved to 36 : 15. Newbury were then awarded a very dubious penalty which they kicked to provide a final scoreline of 39 : 15.

Grove's plight in this match was not helped by some of the worst refereeing seen this season which resulted in most of the judgements going against the visiting side. Amongst these were a ludicrous decision to yellow card replacement hooker Steve Dixey for repeatedly offending, after he had been on the field for less than 30 seconds.

Despite this defeat there were good performances from Grove players who didn't score notably Dave Johnson, Ben Law, John Smart, Jimmy Wallbridge and John Chapman who came on as a blood replacement for flanker Carl Alder.

The nature of the way Newbury played left many of the visiting spectators and players wondering which Newbury team Grove had actually played against because this did not look like their Stags side at all!

John Le Pen

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Grove successfully re-jigged their backs line up for this match with Dave Maryon moving from full back to Scrum half, Roger Sevier moving from scrum half to fly half and Nick Sevier returning to his favoured position of full back. Grove started dominantly with strong forwards driving but it was Amersham who scored first when after 10 minutes they were awarded a penalty in front of the Grove posts which was duly slotted.

Grove replied by immediately returning to the Amersham 22 metre area and looked like scoring but the pressure ended when the referee adjudged Roger Sevier's pass to be forward. Grove thought they had gone into the lead however when Nick Sevier ended a strong backs move only to have the ball ripped from his grasp as he dived for the line for the score. Even the referee was fooled and awarded a try but then rightly changed his decision on the full back's admission that he had lost the ball before being able to ground it.

Grove then did put points on the board when centre Ben Nicholl, returning from a long injury break made a very strong run through the defence to score between the posts, The conversion attempt from Roger Sevier rebounded off the cross bar so the score was now 5 : 3 to the home side. Grove then extended their lead through a long run from Nick Sevier who this time scored successfully between the posts. Brother Roger made no mistake with the kick and the score moved to 12 : 3. Grove continued to attack strongly with good work from forwards John Smart, Paul Harpwood and Lee Wright and this was rewarded when the ball was again moved out to Nick Sevier who went over for a superb second try after a run which included side steps, a dummy pass and a hand off to beat the opposition. Roger Sevier converted to take the score to 19:3. Grove's final score of the half came from No. 8 John Smart who powered over after another strong run from Nicholl and the conversion from Roger Sevier took the score to 26 : 3.

In the second half Grove seemed to change tactics concentrating their efforts within the forwards who did dominate their counterparts but unfortunately never really looked like scoring. It was a shame that, with Grove backs being in such sparkling form in the first half, they were not really used in the second half. Amersham seemed to thrive on this tactical change from Grove and although never really looking like scoring themselves certainly came back into the game. In the end Grove's only reward in the second half was a penalty from Roger Sevier to provide the final scoreline of 29 : 3.

As expected Grove gained a victory over Aylesbury at Cane lane on Saturday but did not always make life easy for themselves in doing so. Indeed it was Aylesbury who scored first with an opportunistic try to give themselves a 5 point lead. Grove replied with a 3 point penalty kick from fly half Roger Sevier and then, following a period of good pressure, went into a 8 : 5 lead through a well worked but unconverted try from flanker Carl Alder.

Just before half time another very promising attack from Grove, which saw some excellent work from lock Rob Weaving, ended in disaster when the Aylesbury loose head prop intercepted Ben Nicholl's pass and ran fully 70 yards, without being caught by anyone, to score beneath the posts. The following conversion gave Aylesbury the half time lead at 8 : 12.

The second half saw Grove with both the wind and sun behind them and they used both to great advantage but it was centre Nicholl who made up for the earlier error by strongly running in a fine try for Grove to re-capture the lead at 13 : 12. From this point on Grove never really looked like losing their lead and indeed went further ahead with a great try from skipper and centre Dave Johnson after the ball had been spun through many hands and across the field and back again. Sevier's conversion made it 20 : 12.

Further Grove pressure, particularly from No. 8 John Smart, who was having a fine game and who was later named man of the match, lead to another penalty which Sevier slotted to make the score 23 : 12. With not long to go Grove were awarded another long range penalty which Sevier duly put over with a great kick to provide the final scoreline of 26 : 12. The gusty conditions had lead to many handling errors from both sides and towards the end the game began to deteriorate into a scrappy affair with Aylesbury penalised for stamping and Grove's Nicholl being yellow carded.

This win removed any threat of relegation for Grove but sadly they are no longer in the race for promotion this season.

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Perhaps predictably Grove went down 38 : 3 to league high fliers Wallingford on Saturday even though Grove had won the home leg of this tie some months earlier. Grove were missing a number of first choice players in their backs and in the end this was their undoing because their forwards were more than a match for the Wallingford pack throughout the game. Grove were caught cold three minutes from the start and despite winning the first scrum against the head they lost the ball to the Wallingford backs for whom their full back neatly ran in to score beneath the posts with little or no tackling effort from Grove.

The conversion put the hosts 7 : 0 in front but four minutes later fly half Roger Sevier put Grove on the scoreboard with a penalty kick following a high tackle from Wallingford. Another four minutes passed and despite good work from the Grove forwards the Wallingford full back again gathered the ball and smartly ran in his second try, virtually unopposed by the Grove defenders. The conversion gave the hosts a 14 : 3 lead. From this point on Grove seemed to get right back into the game with hooker Steve Dixey and fellow forwards John Smart, Carl Alder, Paul Harpwood, Robin Smith and Zach Grant in particular causing mayhem amongst the Wallingford pack, who were visibly losing control. Grove's forwards moved right up to the Wallingford try line, following a well worked line out and maul and looked like possibly scoring when the ball was unfortunately dropped and then illegally handled on the ground for the referee to rightly award a penalty to Wallingford to get them out of trouble.

Grove's forward pressure continued however and the Wallingford pack were definitely beginning to look rattled. Eventually the pressure told when Wallingford's lock and ex-Grove player Mike Turner blatantly charged into Grove's prop Robin Smith from an offside position and gave away a penalty to Grove, being lucky not to receive a yellow card in the process. No scoring resulted but Grove were now matching if not beating Wallingford in all facets of the game. Sadly a very promising attack from the increasingly confident Grove side just before half time ended with an interception from the Wallingford centre who had no trouble in running in a soft but unconverted try to take the score to 19 : 3. Then with only seconds to go before the interval Wallingford cleverly moved the ball up the blind side and again a lack of tackling allowed Wallingford to score another soft but unconverted try to make the half time score 24 : 3.

Immediately after the kick off Turner for Wallingford was sin-binned for handling in the ruck but Grove also lost Harpwood to a very bad cut on the knee, Jamie Fredericks replacing him. The Grove forwards continued to dominate their counterparts but Grove could not penetrate in the backs despite a number of crash balls being passed to inside centre Simon Peel. Grove were then extremely unlucky when No. 8 John Smart broke away and was heading for a certain try only for the referee to bring him back for a penalty to Grove! Had the referee allowed the advantage to continue as he should have done this would have seen Grove pulling back at least five points. Grove's confidence showed when, awarded a penalty in front of the posts, they elected to go for a scrum rather than kick for the almost certain three points. Again it was John Smart who led the charge and with the referee losing patience with Wallingford's continual offside offences were able to get within one foot of the try line, Carl Alder almost going over.

Then tragedy hit Grove when scrum half Dave Maryon had to join Paul harpwood on the way to hospital with what looked like a serious leg injury. Dan Strange came on and Grove backs were re-jigged. With the Grove momentum lost it was Wallingford who then came back and following a short range penalty Mike Turner crashed over for an easily converted try. Prop Dan Bashford came on to replace Richard Keen and Grove's forward pressure continued but then a break away lead to the Wallingford right wing sprinting to the line and scoring in the corner despite a despairing chase and tackle from Nick Sevier, which looked to have taken the player into touch before the ball was grounded. The Wallingford kicker rounded off their scoring with a fantastic conversion from the touch line, given the windy conditions, and Wallingford had won the game with a very flattering scoreline of 38 : 3. Wallingford's Mike Turner was then red carded after the match for verbal abuse of the referee.

In the most awful weather conditions Grove pulled off a great 10 : 0 win against a tough and capable Milton Keynes side. In the first half Grove faced both a gale force wind and driving rain in their faces and not unsurprisingly spent virtually the whole of the first 40 minutes in their own half.

It is to all of the team's great credit that they were able to provide probably the best and most sustained defensive display seen at Cane Lane this season. During the half Milton Keynes attempted 3 drop goals and a penalty goal but none were successful.

Despite the conditions Grove's line's out and scrummaging were excellent and yet again this pack proved itself more than a match for its opponents. For 10 minutes of the half Grove's pack were down to 7 men following Zach Grant's yellow card for illegal use of the boot but despite their continual and unrelenting pressure Milton Keynes only looked like scoring a try once when, following a kick ahead their attacker was prevented from touching down when fly half Roger Sevier, having been beaten for speed to the try line, pulled off an amazing slide through kick to put the ball dead just as the attacker was about to fall on it for the points.

When half time arrived the score remained at 0 : 0 much to the relief of the Grove supporters. After the turn round and with the conditions now in their favour it was Grove's turn to pile on the pressure and within minutes of the start looked to have gone into the lead when hooker Steve Dixey touched down for what looked like a perfectly good try, following some great handling by the Grove backs and forwards alike. Unfortunately the referee decided there had been a knock on and disallowed the score.

Shortly after however Grove did go 3 points in front from a Roger Sevier penalty. To Milton Keynes credit they battled back to within 5 metres of Grove's try line but were not able to break the defence and it was not long before Grove, following a tremendous solo run from Ben Nicholl, were deep in their opponents half again. Grove made two substitutions with Jamie Fredericks coming on for flanker Carl Alder and Jimmy Wallbridge for Steve Dixey. Full back Nick Sevier had a great run from the back ending with a chip ahead which the opposition winger could only desperately kick into touch 5 metres from their try line.

Grove used their final substitute Jack Alder, who came on for wing Ashley lane. MK made a good break when their prop ran back at Grove but fortunately for the home side he managed to knock on before getting to the try line. Grove then spent some time trying to play rugby in their own half when kicking with the wind behind would probably have been the more sensible option but right at the end of the match they were able to force themselves back into MK's danger zone and then the pressure told when acting skipper and No. 8 John Smart crashed over for the only successful try of the match following a terrific line out and drive. The game, which had been extremely entertaining and well played by both sides, ended following Roger Sevier's successful conversion.

Grove 3rds beat Abingdon 2nds away 10 : 19 with Grove's scores coming from Martin Haines (1 try), Gary Eltham (1 try), Adam Connolly (1 try), Patrick Allen (2 conversions)

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12th January 2008	19th January 2008	26th January 2008	2nd February 2008
9th February 2008	16th February 2008	1st March 2008	8th March 2008