Hendon 7's tournament, 2006 - Mandy Reports
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Watford sent one of its strongest squads from many years to Hendon on Sunday for their 7 a side tournament. The format was 4 groups of 4 teams who played each other in their group, with the winners from each group going into the main cup semi finals, the second place teams going into the plate semi finals and the third place teams going into the bowl semi finals. Watford were in a group with Old Millhillians, Old Verulamians and Hackney, all in higher leagues than Watford. Watford beat Old Millhillians 17 - 12 in their first game. Hackney were due to be their next opponents but they had to withdraw .
This meant a long wait until the last pool game against O.V's. The winners would be in the main semi finals as group winners. Unfortunately the gap in league status proved too big to overcome and Watford lost this game 38 - 12. This meant that Watford were in the semi finals of the plate where they faced Sudbury Springboks, who earlier in the tournament had looked one of the better teams. Watford pulled out all the stops and played there best game of the day. Watford's man of the tournament Quintas Van Bosch was outstanding scoring 3 tries, but he was ably supported by the rest of the team of Peter Nelson, Matt Sharpe, Craig Wadey, Ian Butcher, Peter Cox and Gavin Wedlake. Equally the substitutes of Tom Smith, John Portway, Leon De Klerk and Simon Maney played their part in supporting the others when they came onto the field. The final score of 27 - 10 meant that Watford had achieved another first this season in reaching another final for the club. In the final they faced the hosts Hendon,
who had massive support and they eventually overcame the spirited Watford team 31 - 21. Watford's scorers on the day were Butcher, Cox, Maney, Van Bosch and Wedlake. Although it was disappointing to lose having gone so far, Watford took great heart from the fact that they had actually played some good rugby at times and could not forget the fact that they had actually beaten teams of a higher standard to get to the final. |
