Calne 2nd team’s first outing of the season turned out to be a right mixed bag of fortunes and achievements. The initial squad consisted of the full starting compliment of players and two reserves, but injuries and first team call ups took their toll, and the squad was soon reduce to a meagre 10 players. Fortunately, and probably sniffing a rout, Cooper Avon were still accommodating and graciously lent five players to ensure the fixture went a head.

With the newly appointed, 2nd team captain, Jason Dolman’s secondment to the 1st XV, Matt Snell stepped up to deputise. Snell’s first duty was to reshuffled a number of players to unaccustomed positions. Ben Gray was moved from full back to flanker, Martin Phair was moved from centre to 2nd row. Darren Penny was moved from centre to fly half, Snell himself moved up from fly half to hooker. And in the most unlikely reshuffle of the day, Alan Henley stepped in from the wing to the scrum half slot.

This left only prop Chris Austin, centre Jeff Price, winger Michael Burden and back rowers Mark Shipway and Paul Grundy playing in accustomed positions.

Heavily out sized and playing against a well drilled side, the re-jigged Calne squad were immediately on the back foot after the loss of stand in captain, Snell, who in his first outing in three years had to pay a hospital a visit with a hand injury.

The first 40 minutes could be best described as character building as Calne 2nds found themselves a full 50 points down and scoreless at half time. Cooper Avon looked impressively strong and the writing was on the wall for a triple figure score come full time. But Calne’s heads didn’t drop and from the restart, Price sliced through some woeful home team tackling to score between the posts. This was followed up by scores from Shipway and a loanee Cooper Avon player, leaving the 2nd half scores effectively level at 19 a piece.

A part from being very sore and tired Calne’s sprits remained high. Some players stood up and laid their markers down. Notably the back rower/2nd rower Paul Grundy showed a lot of quality and leadership ability. The bulk of Austin became a key factor as the game progressed and his ability to keep going impressed everyone. Shipway’s strength, fitness and determination was awesome, as he made his welcome return to Calne colours.

Calne face off against the same opposition in the 2XV cup in a months time

Cooper Avon Tyres 69 Calne 19

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