Swaffham girls battle well

THE very first girls' U15 match to be played at Swaffham's North Pickenham Road ground saw an amalgamation of mainly Swaffham and Holt girls take on the might of Basford.

THE very first girls' U15 match to be played at Swaffham's North Pickenham Road ground saw an amalgamation of mainly Swaffham and Holt girls take on the might of Basford.

This was the first competitive match for some of the 'Swaffholt' girls against a well-established side amalgamated from the Basildon and Rochford clubs.

From the kick-off Swaffholt were soon into their stride showing no fear of their well-drilled opponents and from good work in the backs and strong support from the forwards they were first to score, Emily being driven over in the corner to claim the touchdown.

Basford replied with a try of their own and then only failed to score more points due to Swaffholt's organised defence and strong tackling.

Katie fed Charlie, who saw the space in front of her, held off the tackler long enough to feed Leslie who ran half the length of the pitch to score Swaffholt's second try.

Sometime during this phase of play Basford lost another player to injury and this prompted their coach to request the rest of the game to be played with 11 players a side and uncontested scrums.

This proved to be the turning point of the match, negating Swaffholt's obvious supremacy in the set-piece and allowing Basford's stronger players to play in the backs resulting in several miss-matches which they soon turned into points, scoring a further four tries without reply while Swaffholt experimented with several less experienced players, the final score being 25-10 to Basford.

Katie Parke (Swaffham) was named as girl of the game.