Cam Lose Control in Extreme Heat

Unfortunately, any game played at 30C + is likely to become niggly and fractious and this is exactly what happened on the artificial track at Maidenhead today and despite a promising first period when, the black and ambers eventually came up short in a second half which was tetchy to say the least and where Cam were at one stage down to 13.
The game saw Cam kick off and they were very soon camped in the Maidenhead 22 and we saw Vic showing his quality running the ball back to the 22 carving through the opposition defence to their 22.
From this territorial advantage Cam again squeezed Maidenhead and a series of pens eventually saw Big Dom claim the first points of the afternoon and with Razor adding the extras Cam moved into the lead after 13 mins.
However this lead didn't last too long as, although the black and ambers dealt well with the restart, a sloppy offside gave the hosts a lineout chance 10m from the Cam line and a smart move saw them equalise things on 17 mins.
We then saw what the Black and ambers are capable of when Vic, fielding a defensive kick on his 10m, glided through almost the entire Maidenhead side and when he linked with Brizzle there was always only going to be one result as the hardworking centre timed his pass to perfection to put Bowers in for an excellent try and with Razor adding the extras the score had moved to 14-7 after 30 mins.
We then had a scrappy period of play but this was only to be expected in these horrendous conditions and the half closed with Cam again putting the hosts under serious pressure and on the stroke of half time moving the score to 17-7 with another Razor kick.

The second half became even more scrappy and a great break by Cam old boy Turton saw Maidenhead reduce the gap to 3 points with a converted try on 45 mins.
The game was now very loose and to their credit the home side seemed to manage the heat and the official much better than Cam and when they lost possession in the home red zone again we had the sight of the Maidenhead front rower making 75m and when Vic was pinged for a high tackle – rather surprising really as the fullback only weighs about as much as a soaking wet jock strap, however this cost him 10 mins cooling off and with the resultant pen converted it was all square.
To their credit Cam came straight back at the restart and turning down a pot at goal they opted for the 5m lineout and we saw Ozzie Greg driving over for an unconverted try on 70 mins.
Then Cam had a nightmare 5 mins when, having messed up the restart Greg were unlucky to be pinged having tackled his opponent forcing the ball forward at the same time he then also got up very rapidly (particularly for Greg) to pick up the loose ball, costing a pen and another card and this meant that for a period Cam were reduced to 13 and as such they were unable to withstand the pressure as the hosts took the lead with a converted try and things became much worse when Turton got away again to seal things.
Cam did have the opportunity to get something from the game when in the dying minutes they were awarded a pen on the home 22, fairly straightforward 3 points which meant a lbp or into the corner for a lineout drive and possibly an lbp plus a tbp. However having decided to go for broke, the wet ball and sweaty hands combined to foil that attempt, so a first loss of the season to a motivated and very good defensive side who made the most of their speedy winger.

Obviously Cam were not the only side to suffer from the heat as there were again some interesting results – so much so that after just 2 rounds only 1 side out of 12 does not have a W, Horsham, and they have 4 bonus points.

Really this was still an OK performance by the side but one thing they will all have learned is that they need to stick to the script better and also keep on the right side of the official if they want to seriously challenge this season

With Hughsey and Bazza not available it was a good opportunity to see both young prop Ollie and Flanker Dan the Man and both looked very promising in their cameos towards the end of the game.

And Finally – well the C&Ws got off to a winning start when their team of largely Academy players had a comfortable 6 try to 2 win over Nottingham, good prep for their visit to The Sorries next week.

No pics this week as Dinger was not available