Please check the website frontpage; if we have to call off because the pitches are unplayable, the website will be updated by approximately 9 a.m.

Otherwise we will run a training session for ALL PLAYERS. Hope to see you there.

Training will resume on 10th Jan, see you all then.
Martin

Apologies, we have only one coach able to make it tomorrow so session is off.
regards,
Martin

All pitches unplayable including their alternate
Sorry but we have lost another fixture, here's hoping we have more luck next week.

Martin

Home training for all players - this is our last scheduled session with Chris and our last training session before the league fixture against Farnham; so a 100% attendance would be very valuable.

Thanks to the 13s for agreeing to share the pitch after the 2nd team pitch was flooded out. A good game against Reeds and a valuable training session from head coach Chris Yates. Match report to follow

Illness, injury and Remembrance Sunday depleted the Wimbledon ranks to 22, however this was still a disappointing result considering our recent victories. All credit to Mitcham who played strongly, out-muscled us especially in the second half and have definitely improved since we won last years corresponding fixture.

Mitcham arrived with a strong A/B team and by agreement we played the game with a largely B contingent in the first half and mainly A players in the second. The first half saw us go in 10-14 down, with the Wimbledon tries coming from Damian Cherry-Fox and Alex Browning. In the second half, Mitcham brought on some very strong 'A' standard players, who were too much for our already-tired pack and swapped-in A back line. Some missed tackles showed that this is still an area for more work in training. A late fightback from Wimbledon saw another good try from recently joined wing, James Waghorn

Taking some positives from the day, we were without several key players especially in the pack, and the boys never gave up at any point. A big thank you to Louis Hogan for filling in as hooker in extremis, we know he does not like it!

A rearranged fixture in appalling conditions at London Wasps, but the boys were undeterred and came out of the day with considerable credit. It was particularly pleasing to see that our turnout of 30 players was easily the highest of the 3 clubs; and that Wasps have now invited us for a friendly next season. Overall, the forwards did more than hold their own although we did cough up possession occasionally (hardly surprising given the conditions). The backs performance was a bit laboured but again the conditions weren't conducive to running rugby. We were able to play 3 shortened games on the day:

London Wasps A 0 - 7 Wimbledon A
Wasps probably dominated the first half, with Wimbledon playing with the wind and rain in their faces. The ball was held up more than once after Wasps camped on our line for considerable periods. Ben Cantello pulled off a textbook tackle to deny the Wasps fly half a certain try. In the second half, the deadlock was broken when Charlie McKibben picked up at the back of the scrum and ran two-thirds of the pitch to score. A great start to the day.

London Wasps B 19 - 0 Wimbledon B
A very strong-looking Wasps B side was too much for Wimbledon in the first half. All credit to our boys for bringing down the huge Wasps no16 on a couple of occasions, but they were still able to force through for 3 tries in the half. Coming out for the second half, a much improved Wimbledon performance had us prevent any further scores although we were unable to score ourselves.

Wimbledon A/B 12 - 7 London Welsh
The third game of the day saw us put out a strong A/B side against the Welsh. The first half was even, with the Welsh scoring to cancel out the excellent run and try by Sam Codling from the wing. In the second half, the result was secured by a speculative chip over the defence by Max Tomlinson that was chased down and grounded by Nick Shuttleworth who was particularly active in both attack and defence all day.

Finally the report would not be complete without mentioning the highlight of the day for most of the boys. Which was , of course, discovering a frog under a woodpile and chasing it for about 20 minutes before it finally made its escape.. .

Another Game of Two Halves, played in extremely blustery conditions in the far (sloping!) corner of Big Field. A highly depleted by half term, but still strong, squad of 19 Wimbledon players took on Dorking. The first half was very even; the first try by Aidan O'Brien was quickly answered as Dorking went over in the corner. James McGrath picked up from the back of the scrum and dodged several tackles to restore our advantage; but again Dorking came back and we went in at half time 14-10 down.

Wimbledon came out for the second half determined to make more of their dominance in the forwards. The scrum got stronger and stronger, winning all of our own ball and most of the oppositions; only the 1.5 metre rule saved Dorking from being pushed off every time. Shortly a good series of moves resulted in Damian Cherry-Fox charging over to restore Wimbledons advantage. Not long after that, some quick thinking by Matt Rogers saw him pick up near the Dorking line and power through to score. This time Aidan was able to convert probably the most difficult kick of the day in almost impossible conditions.

Dorking opted to kick a penalty, which turned out to be their last score of the game. With the score now at 17-22, Wimbledon opted to run their own next penalty, and Eslam Djennad steamrollered through to score. The backs got back in on the scoring as new boy James Waghorn built on last weeks good performance to score his first try for Wimbledon. Dorking were now visibly tiring, and Wimbledon piled on the points through a characteristic run from deep by Charlie McKibben and a second try for James McGrath. All in all an impressive performance against a team which beat us last season.

A very strong overall performance against a team who have been neck-and-neck with us for several years, and who beat us in last seasons fixture. Battersea were unfortunately unable to bring two sides as originally planned, so their one team played a 'game of two halves' against a mixed A/B Wimbledon team. In the first half, almost complete domination by the Wimbledon pack provided plenty of ball for the strong back line. Fast movement through the hands gave the ball quickly to Sam Codling who was able to run in two tries from the wing and was unlucky when an uncharacteristic drop caused him to miss out on his hat-trick. Some slick interchanges in the centres led to a try each for Robert Davies and Nick Shuttleworth. The outrageous one-handed pass behind his back by Nick can not go without a mention! The dominant pack got their representative on the scoreboard when Diogo Carvalho went over towards the end of the half.

In the second half, Battersea did well to come back at us after the back line were swapped out and some changes made in the pack. However Wimbledon were able to stabilise the situation after 3 quick tries from Battersea; by the end of the game the pack had re-asserted control, and Nick was able to cap off a fine overall performance with his second try of the day. Particular congratulations should go to Aidan O'Brien who managed a 100% record with the 6 conversions he made on the day.

A great first competitive game for our B team, a solid win over Richmond which is something to be proud of. The Wimbledon pack dominated throughout the game, and the fact that the scoreline did not quite reflect that is something for us to work on in future weeks. Of particular note was the strong running displayed by Ellis Morgan and Eslam Djennad; however the first half belonged to Alex Browning who ran in both of our tries in response to the early Richmond score and conversion.

The dominant performance continued in the second half, with Eslam powering over the line to finish off a period of sustained pressure, and Damien Cherry-Fox capping a storming performance - perhaps his best ever in a Wimbledon shirt - with a well-deserved try. However Richmond are a team never to be written off, and they came back late in the game with a try as their impressive fly-half ran through most of the Wimbledon team - some work to be done on tackling practice!

The back line were not to be completely overshadowed on the day, with Lucas Strauss making an impressive debut. James Jenkinson was unlucky not to convert an inventive punt over the advancing Richmond line into a try, after following his own kick. The report would not be complete without mentioning both the superb tap-tackle and textbook try-saving defensive tackle from Ben Cantello.

Overall a solid first outing for the Bs and a strong argument for some promotions to the A squad in the coming weeks.

We are going to have another go at this, given sufficient interest. With two more coaches joining us, we think we can run a session on Thursdays at about 6:30.

Can you let me know if you are interested in this please? We don't expect 25 kids, not least because a lot of them are playing or training 2 or 3 times a week at school. But we know quite a few of them only get rugby on a Sunday right now and might be keen on this. If we can get 15 on a regular basis we think the session is worth running.

Clive Davies has kindly agreed to once more look after the initial registrations, collect the forms and accept cheques/cash on Sunday mornings. If you can download and fill out the forms in advance that would do a lot to streamline the process. The form is on the website HERE

Welcome to the new season. Training will be at 10:00 sharp (show up at 9:45 please) on Sunday 6th September.

Enquiries to Martin and Mark Here
Martin 07778 511677
Mark 07966 192087