Sat 22^nd Apr 00

Daventry 0 – Ampthill Extras 35

 15      Jamie Dix                              1   Brian Geary  *

14      Dave McMahon                   2   Gez Ingarfield        

11      Gary Bass                              3   Wayne Peck

13   Steve Marsden                      4   Sam Branston

12   Joel Parker                             5   Nick Lewis  

10   Johnston (Paddy) Bradley     6   Liam Duffin (c)

9     John Lasbry                              7   Will Knox

          8   Dave Burns

 16     Tom Gray                                    19    Andy Morgan

17     John Wilkinson                            20    Brian Todd

18     Ally Gonse                                    21    Paul Rigby

                                                                22    Ian Browning

  Tries:    Johnston (Paddy) Bradley, Ian Browning, Joel Parker (2), Dave McMahon

Early signs were good on the penultimate game of the season when Tom Gray arrived at the club looking for a game moments before the Extras were to set off on their trek up the M1.

 Upon arrival at Daventry a fixture cock-up had resulted in two away teams turning up to Play Daventry II. As to who would stay and play was to be decided by the toss of a coin. Losers would travel down the road to play Long Buckby. The coin landed in favour of the Extras.

 It was quite a task just getting changed with 20 players vying for their own space in a changing room not much bigger than a broom cupboard. Usually at this time of the season pitches are dry and hard, this had not been the case over the last few weeks. A torrential downfall just before 3 o’clock had the pitch looking more like a paddy field than a rugby field. The conditions were certainly not conducive to the running rugby the Ampthill backs would have preffered.

 The game kicked off and after a short period Paddy waded his way through a gap in the Daventry line to score a try for Ampthill. It was also not long before both teams realised that the referee really didn’t have a clue about many of the laws of the game. It should at this point, for those of you not at the game but would like to conjure up their own picture of the ref., be pointed out that the referee was a young woman. It should also be known that the Extras have been refereed by women before to whom no complaints could be directed. Some of the decisions made by this referee often left 30 rugby players highly bemused.

 Throughout the first half the Extras pack under the direction of Dave Burns orchestrated some good drives and won much of the contested ball to give the Ampthill backs possession. Dave McMahon was next to get on the score sheet, running in a try on the wing narrowly avoiding the touchline. 

 At the end of the first half it was difficult to tell the two mud soaked teams apart. Trigger, through some fancy footwork and ball-hand avoidance had managed to keep his shirt reasonably mud free.

 Some personnel changes at half time saw Andy Morgan return to the Extras for the first time this season.

 The weather improved as the game went on, there were even a few minutes moments of sunshine, but the sodden pitch meant that many moves ended up in handling errors. There were three more tries for the Extras in the second half. Two came from Joel Parker whom had another great game in the centre. Ian Browning also crossed the line for his fifteenth try of the season.

 Daventry never really looked like scoring and the final scoreline was 25 – 0 to Ampthill.

 The really good fun came in the changing room after the game with twenty muddy Al Jolsons fighting for the showers that somebody had managed to throw up in earlier in the day.