Misfiring Cam still claim another Max

On an unseasonably warm November Saturday we welcomed Royal Wootton Bassett for their first visit to Watchetts with the Cam supporters hopeful that their team could continue on from their stellar second half at ODP last week.
In the event they saw the visitors, who currently occupy last place in the league, unveil their plan to disrupt the black and ambers, which worked, up to a point, but in the end the quality and fitness of the Cam squad shone through as they scored 6 tries and in doing so kept apace with league leaders Wimbledon.
The visitors seemed intent on nullifying the Cam scrum which we saw them collapse on numerous occasions, loading and slowing down the breakdown which they did very well and also by successfully managing to ignore the offside law with apparent impunity which of course impacted our backs.

The game saw Cam again playing away from the clubhouse into a slight breeze and the black and ambers found the spoiling tactics of the visitors difficult to overcome and so the first quarter saw both sides testing each other out until, on 23 mins Cam, in their 22 turned they turned over a Bassett attack and we saw Jos cruise up to halfway before Fireman George took over and raced to touch down in the corner and with Liam adding the extras the scoreboard had started working (Thanks to The Dood).
The restart was not handled well by Cam and some Bassett pressure saw them get onto the board with a good try and, also the bonus of a yellow card to the Cam player coach.
At this stage we saw lots of what appeared to be basic errors by Cam with the ball being lost all too frequently when it seemed that a score was on and we needed to wait until the 36th minute before the next score but when it came it was worth waiting for as several attacks stretched the visitors defence until the ball was moved yet again to George who sprinted in and his acrobatic roll made 'The Ashton' dive seem very staid – afterwards the winger claimed that there were far too many acorns on that area of the pitch for him to dive!!!
The remainder of the half saw more and more of the visiting side needing attention as their game plan began to physically take its toll although they bravely refused to concede any more points before the official blew for half time.

The second period started with Cam wanting to play in the visitors 22 and with 47 mins on the clock, after considerable pressure, a scrum inside the red zone saw the ball brought blind and veteran TommyA cruising over for an important score.
And Cam were at it again when, following a great nudge by George which took play again deep into the redzone, a great lineout drive eventually saw the ball swung out to Liam whose kick pass to Jos saw the winger cross in clubhouse corner for the bonus point.

Cam at this time were clearly in command as the knocks and shear effort expended began to slow the visitors down and soon Cam were back in the red zone and another scrum 15m out saw Ali call another blindside move with Jos again dotting down in the corner and with Liam adding the extras from the touchline moving the score to 31-7 with almost 20 mins remaining.
From the restart we saw Big Dom charge almost to halfway with Hughsey joining in but again Cam suffered from not looking after the ball well enough and any chance of scoring was gone – but not for long as again Cam forced their way deep into the visitors 22 and this time it was the visitors who 'won' a yellow for dragging down a great lineout drive but as the prop became a spectator we saw Dom crash over almost unopposed from the resulting 5m lineout making the score 36-7.
The final 15 was a rather more messy affair with a period of uncontested scrums, players from both sides needing lengthly attention and as a result the final whistle came almost 2 hours from the beginning of proceedings as the sun disappeared from view.

So not the performance from Cam that we had hoped for but good to see debutant 19 year old hooker Lewis clearly enjoying himself, proving to be very mobile around the park and clearly relishing this step up in level, with his equally young mate Finn in the front row also going well until he got himself a smack on the nose. Overall I suspect Risey and Laids will not be too unhappy with the result and they will have been pleased to see Ozzie Greg play the full 80 on his first time out after quite some time off with a damaged calf – in fact he did cause some concern on the touchline in the first half as he darted?? for at least 20 meters into the Bassett 22 before he sensibly found a teammate to offload to.

So next weekend is a blank one so hopefully for both sides there will be time for the physios to sort out the knocks collected today - and Cam will no doubt continue to strive for a more consistent performance over 80 mins when they make the trip to Oxford Quins to complete the first round fixtures.

The 2s claimed the points as Esher withdrew from their Surrey Premier fixture

And Finally – well the C&Ws will be disappointed that they were not able to continue their good form so far losing 21-27 at Castle Grim but with 11 internationals away with their countries it seems that their SiD is still in need of some attention although how you manage this with salary caps etc is another question.

Pic shows Brizzle on the charge