April 2008 News Archives

Some solid performances got us through to the quarter-finals where we met our most frequent rival of the season - St Neots - for one last time as we finished the season almost as we began, only with the result reversed. But at least we had played our part in contributing to Hitchin winning the overall festival trophy.

Eric finally lost his voice......

Last weekend we had an action packed Sunday as we took one team to the St. Neots Festival (Panthers) and had two teams hosting Letchworth at the club (Jaguars & Leopards). Both squads put in some good performances and did themselves proud. The Panthers narrowly missed out on the final at St. Neots and the Jaguars & Leopards competed well against the County Champions! It was an excellent way to round off the season.

Vikings make 1/4 final, but lose to hosts. FAIR PLAY WINNERS!
With the Vikings ‘oop North at the St Neots festival, the Saxons resources were stretched a bit thin.

Founders Cup

More emails from Simon I hear you say.....relax, not many more to go....

It was an excellent morning on Sunday as we held our own mini U7 festival. We separated the players into six teams and each team played five matches as they played each other in a round robin basis. All the players participated, even the younger U6 players and it was a thoroughly enjoyable morning. Well done to all the players for their commitment and effort during the morning and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Congratulations go to the TIGERS who came out on top – they were unbeaten during the morning, winning 4 and drawing 1 of their five matches, although the CHEETAHS pushed them close. Thanks to Adrian and Rob for refereeing the matches with me and also thanks to Jez, Brian, Gordon, Martin, Andy & Helen who helped run the teams.

The following have been selected

A respectable outcome for the day coming second in the Cup group stage (a first for this team since tag) and thus qualifying for the Bowl competition. Sadly we went no further: our would be rivals-in-chief of this season scored a convincing win in the semi with over-eagerness on our part coupled with some bad luck contributing.

Not quite a "big" as last week but brace yourselves anyway!

Could the following players please confirm their availability for the Hitchin side playing the Periwinkles. The matchfee will be £10 which will be donated to the Charity

Could the following players please confirm their availability and interest in the County 7's on May 11th - 7's training Tue and Thurs

A great day out, tremendous spirit and courage from all the players and a privilege for the parents to see what a strong and united bunch of players the U12’s have become.

Sunday 20th April 2008 - Colts vs Colts (Please drink responsibly!)

Disappointed, and with their league hopes thwarted, the Colts reconvened today for the match of all matches.

Hitchin Rugby Under 14 squad won through to the County Plate Final, which was staged against Hemel Hempstead last Sunday, after beating Datchworth, Harpenden and Hertford earlier this year but, despite a heroic struggle, narrowly lost 14-7.

Saturday April 26th

Fund Raising Robin Thorpe Memorial Match in aid of Lymphoma Research

Please come along and support

Followed by Disco in the Clubhouse 8.00 ‘till Midnight

All Welcome, come along and contribute to a great day out and a fantastic opportunity to raise some money for a worthy cause.

We entered 2 teams, in the Cup and Plate competitions

It seemed fitting for our last league game of the season against Fullers that the playing conditions were perfect and a full team to pick from, to really test how far we really had moved on this season in our own development.

Once again, not sure of availabilities for 4 XV, so please let us know as soon as possible.
Any player not selected but available, please contact Chris Jones

Chris Jones

01462 453453 [T]
01462 638327 [F]
07757 357986 [M]

After weathering the hurricane which came in the human form of the Dunstablians' fly-half, we gradually gained some form of equality and were denied a thoroughly deserved draw in the second match by a conversion on the final kick of the day. It was especially creditable to see the squad pick itself up in such a fashion after having seen one of its members carried away by ambulance.

Brace yourselves....it could be a big one!!!

We took two teams to the Herts County Festival this Sunday and had a very long, tiring but enjoyable morning. Competing against the best teams in the county was always going to be tough, but both teams performed well and the players did themselves proud.

Hitchin Panthers v Tring Won 6-3

The Panthers started the tournament really well and played some excellent rugby in beating the host team. Tring had already played a game and I was concerned this may have given them an advantage, but I did not need to worry. Confidence was high in the team and this was evident when Ethan won the toss and decided Tring could have the ball first, very generous of him and I think it confused the ref as he had to check with me to make sure that was correct. This decision was vindicated as we stopped them scoring with the first move of the match and then went down the other end to score ourselves and set the tone for the game. Our attacking play was excellent and we scored some fine tries through Ethan B, Ciaran (3) and Connor (2), but I was most impressed with our defence and there was some excellent tagging by all players. In total Tring had the ball seven times during the game and we only let them score only three times, which was a great effort. A good start to the morning.

Hitchin beat kilburn Cosmos in their final league game of the season in dramatic style.

Whilst the score may look unusual, the use of the Hampstead coach as referee and extra player meant that it was only fair that all of their scores were only worth 0.1 of a point..... Not that I would criticise a referee of course!

2 entertaining matches a good warm up for next weeks County Cup.

Steve Ward has got a fixture away v. Biggleswade. Not far to go, so hopefully we can still get the lads to play.

Suggest meet at 1.30, to get way by @ 2.00 latest[ 20 minute journey]

Chris Jones

01462 453453 [T]
01462 638327 [F]
07757 357986 [M]

Hemel Hempstead 21 Hitchin 6

Hitchin battled hard before their cup final hopes disappeared in the second half against higher league Hemel.

We are not sure of the availabilities of all of the 4 XV players in particular, so anyone not selected who wants a game, please contact Chris Jones.

Please confirm your availability via the web by midday on Thursday if possible.

A big well done to all the players, parents and coaches that braved the snow on Sunday at training, it was a good session and very worthwhile as we worked on final preparations for the County Festival. We had a number of short duration training matches between the Panthers & Jaguars and I was pleased with the all the players performance and efforts through the morning. The matches were close and both teams improved as the morning went on, although the Jaguars tired slightly in the last match. We even found a way of stopping the players running backwards!! The remaining members of the squad worked on some passing & support play and had some small sided matches.

Dave Ridgewell has said that training is still on despite the weather. Watch this space!

Out came the Sun out came the U8's after a few weeks rest...but I think we had to get up at dawn to find it!

Sunday 6th April

There is training at the club this week, Sunday 6th April. IMPORTANT NOTE: Can I ask that all players selected for the County festival attend this session (please see teams below). This will be our last chance to prepare before the festival so it is important all players are present. If you are unable to attend please let me know.

At last the rain & snow stopped and we played some rugby !!! We hosted Royston on Sunday it what was an enjoyable morning. Both teams had two sides, so our Panthers played their A team and our Jaguars played their B team. We played a total of 6 matches during the morning; won 2, drew 3 and lost only once against a good Royston team, which was an excellent achievement especially as we had a few players away and we also fielded some of our younger U6 players.

The following sides have been selected

1 XV play on Sunday

The 3 XV have two fixtures to fulfil on Saturday:

League match v. Datchworth 3s [home], and

Greene King plate semi-final v. Old Tottonians 2s [away]

In order to meet this commitment, we have selected a 3 XV and an "Extra" 3 XV :

To repeat the recent understatement of the year - this was not our finest hour. For much of the morning it looked as though the squad was still recovering from too many Easter eggs and the lost hour's sleep as we put up a show lacking in pretty much anything. And yet there were some bright moments and it says something if we can win two matches playing so far off our best.

After defeating them on 16h March to secure their place in the Herts President Trophy this Sunday Hitchin looked to repeat the performance. Verulamians were bolstered by the return of their Captain at scrum half.

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