An excellent effort and performance by George, Dean, Shed, Jacko, Jenks, Caz, Tobias, Harrison and Josh, not only for their performance in the game but because they were the only Holt u15s on the pitch. 4 players were recruited from the u14s and Swaffham lent us a player for each half. Special thanks must go to those guys who came and put on one of our shirts, without them we wouldn't have been able to play the game and Swaffham would have traveled for nothing.
An impeccable minutes silence was held before the game, with both teams facing each other and all the other players and families coming to the side of the first team pitch to pay their respects. Brilliant.
Despite being disappointed by the lack of team mates and the re-organising it took to get the 14 players to work together the game was well fought and closer than the final score reflects. Swaffham are a developing side but they are also a very big side and were going to take some stopping.
Although the visitors scored first it was not going to be one way traffic and Holt soon replied, the game settled down and with much of the play in the middle of the field and it became a fairly even and well contested battle. Half time score was Holt 12 - Swaffham 14. A try by Shed and Jenks with Shed converting one of the tries.
Swaffham started the second half a little sharper and got an early try, which wasn't converted. However Holt pinned the visitors back not only in their 22 but on their 5 metre line and were denied a try by some very strong defence and a foot just in touch. Harrison eventually managed to close the gap after a quick penalty was taken. From this moment Holt could have edged ahead but Swaffham had found their rythmn and started to find holes in the Holt defence. A couple of further tries by the boys in yellow meant the final score was Holt 17 - Swaffham 31.
Well done to Swaffham who were obviously delighted on the final whistle, they came with 20 players and even loaning a couple to Holt still rotated their subs and gave everyone some valuable time on the pitch. An excellent effort by the Holt players, they had to tackle twice as much, cover more ground and gel with players they had only met 10 minutes before the game.
Man of the match: Tobias. Who worked really well with Caz at 10 and Josh at 8, digging the ball out and making things happen. When Tobias stood on the chair for his 'boat race' he was still only as tall as the Swaffham man of the match, before he climbed up on his chair. Congratulations Tobias and good to see you pulling on that shirt.
There was no Turd Of The Day presented for obvious reasons and Mel very kindly offered to wash the shirts. I will need to organise a rota system for this, so we can all share the load. Hands up who wants first dibs?
A big thank you to the helpers in the kitchen and with serving the matchday lunch. Not ideal for parents to help when their children are playing but it was just one of those unfortunate unavoidables. The Minis should have been away, as should have the u14s, which only left us and the u13s, who were scheduled to have had a match but it was cancelled very late.
Thanks to those who did let us know in advance that they were unavailable - obviously there were other events happening, a Norfolk fixture and Remembrance Sunday. But please let us know if you are unable to play as early as possible because matches can be cancelled, as a last resort, even though it does cause issues with ordered food and arrangements with the kitchen but at at least it will avoid any future embarrassment.
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