Committed Cam Recover to set up Seaside Climax

On a glorious Eater Saturday we welcomed Shelford to Watchetts for the first time with both sides attempting to make amends for their poor opening games in this competition. In the end the black and ambers saw off a very determined and physical Essex side to maintain their slim hopes of proceeding to the next stage of the competition.

Cam, playing away from the clubhouse and receiving the kick off soon found their task even stiffer when the visitors scored a well worked try which was converted on 4 mins and with Cam having conceded several pens from the restart the visitors went even further ahead with another excellent try in the corner making the score 0-12 with barely 10 mins on the clock and in doing so ripped up the Cam script completely.

However, as we have witnessed many times this season we witnessed an impressive recovery as Cam, from the restart were soon set up in the redzone and a great driving maul saw the pack almost over bat as Vic switched it wide young Ben Stevens at 10 threw a fantastic miss pass to the Flying Fijian for the winger to cross in the corner.

The visitors, however were soon back in the cam 22 with a well played 50-22 but Cam weathered the storm and worked hard to get play back into the visitors red zone and from another great catch and drive, again the ball was eventually switched wide and the Flying Fijian made a half break before passing to Joey who crossed and with Vic, playing his first game at 9 this season adding the extras the scores were tied on 27 mins.

By now Cam were looking more confident and another kick was charged down by Hughsey and the #8 showing that he hadn't lost any of his pace forced a lineout 5m from the visitors line and this time good control saw the catch and drive cross with The Wombat claiming the score.
The game was still anyones and as half time approached the visitors narrowed the gap with a well struck pen making the score at the break 17-15.

With Cam attacking the clubhouse end they were soon on the attack with a great break down the middle by returning skipper Birdy and after a couple of phases another great miss pass by Ben saw the Flying Fijian make good yards before a perfect pop pass saw our Fiesty Fireman doing the necessary and with Vic adding the extras the score had moved to 24 – 15 and the try bonus achieved.
By this stage the Cam scrum could claim dominance, due largely to the immense efforts of Bazza, Murph and The Wombat against a very capable front 3 and this dominance saw Cam again in the redzone where in the end the ref had no choice but to award a penalty try with one of the visitors props sent to warm the bench for 10 mins.
However to their credit, and despite having fought ferociously for 60 mins, the visitors stayed in the fight, repelling really good chances by George and Ben and in one of their attacks we witnessed Big Dom actually picking up an opposition player in the Cam 5m channel and walking him into touch to prevent a score but this pressure was eventually rewarded with a try which in the event turned out to be the final score of a bruising contest making the score 31-20.

So a tough encounter for the end of what has been a pretty tough season for the black and ambers and another great performance by the pack with front row outstanding after they had sorted the visitors crooked scrummaging. Also great performance by Voighty, who came on in the second half and who was clearly fired up and it was no surprise when a perfectly timed tackle on one of the Shelford props removed all of the air in the Essex boy's lungs so rapidly that it was clearly audible to all of the spectators on that side of the park – clearly the winner of the Franzel 'Tacklers Mug' award on Thursday.
The back row were also excellent and it was good to see Birdy get through a tough 60 mins with no apparent issues with his shoulder.
The new halfback combination of Vic and Ben worked really very well in such a combative game with the young scrum half kicking from hand excellent and Ben's linking and long miss passes were excellent.
Centres Brizzle and Joey probably had one of their most physical game of the season with loads of tackling while Jos and Frank had to work hard on the flanks to make any ground while George found himself at fullback for most of the game but is clearly so much happier on the wing where he seems to be much more involved (and he has someone to talk to) but to his credit he put in what was without doubt his best tackle of the season ending up almost in the crowd!!

So the trip to Havant is now, probably, a winner takes all as long as Havant don't claim a tbp or lpb and the black and ambers claim the win, a tpb and score quite a lot of points – certainly achievable but a big ask.

Pic by Dinger shows Joey Wood claiming his first score for a while