Tadley (15) vs. Grove (16)

A pretty dreadful match all round with very little to enthuse about. Tadley seemed to have no imagination at all with their only tactic being to feed their fly half who continuously kicked ahead. Fortunately for them this resulted in a converted try on one occasion when the Grove defender dropped the ball. Tadley scored a second try and one penalty to complete their tally and Grove scored one try in the first half from wing Harry Carr, supporting one of many good runs from skipper Ben Nicholl (easily Grove’s Man of the Match) and a conversion and three penalties from fly half Dave Maryon. Neither side could ever develop anything with the extremely over-zealous referee stopping the game continuously throughout. In a very mediocre match he somehow managed to issue six yellow cards!

Grove looked very ring rusty in this game, having had a three week layoff but to be fair to them they were a depleted side with missing regulars Nick and Roger Sevier (injured), Matt Young (injured), Chris Clare (unavailable) and Peter Cakebread (disciplinary).

This could have been and very nearly was a real ‘banana skin’ for Grove in their quest for promotion with only a late but well struck penalty from Dave Maryon saving them from defeat.