Welcome to an extremely packed roundup this week with so much Marlow action to sink your teeth into!
If you are interested in watching any of the teams we mention then get down to: Pound Lane for Marlow Hockey, Riverwoods for Marlow Rugby and Oak tree road for Marlow F.C.
- Marlow Hockey’s Men’s 1s and Amersham and Chalfont meet on Saturday 8th February at Pound Lane, an important fixture for both sides. The game starts at 1.30 pm and all are welcome to come along.
- The next home game for Marlow Rugby’s Men’s 1st XV is a must win fixture versus fellow play-off hopefuls Aylesbury at Riverwoods on Saturday 15th February. (No Six Nations matches that weekend, so get down to Riverwoods if you want to see some rugby action)
- Marlow FC’s next home fixture is on Saturday 15th February at Oak tree road against Northwood FC.
If you have any sports stories you want to share, match results, feel your club should be included or know of someone who deserves a mention in the roundup next week, email me: ben.dawson@mymarlow.co.uk
HOCKEY
Marlow Men’s teams
The men’s first team came unstuck at Newbury and Thatcham losing 5-1 in a game which, judged by their league positions, they might have been expected to win. Despite this reverse they stay 3rd in the league but Amersham and Chalfont won again to go clear in second place. The two clubs meet on Saturday at Pound Lane, an important fixture for both sides. The game starts at 1.30 pm and all are welcome to come along.
Marlow 2s hosted second placed South Berks. Both sides showed some prowess in the opening stages but Marlow took first blood via a James Ashburner goal. South Berks fought back and scored two in reply, the second of which came from a deflected short corner. Marlow stuck to their game plan though and levelled before half time, with a deft finish from Callum Totton. The second half saw the umpires issue a number of cards, several of which went to Marlow players. Amid the confusion, South Berks took the lead 3-2. Again Marlow bounced back, with Dan Merrel dancing through the South Berks back line to tuck home. The visitors did not capitulate, and another counter attack saw them move into a 4-3 lead with 4 mins to play.
Marlow 2s have been resilient, if at times inconsistent, this year and were not finished. Dan Field led the charge, firing a rocket towards goal which was well saved by the keeper. But a foul in the follow up saw Marlow awarded a penalty stroke. Field stepped up and tucked home the penalty Final score 4-4. The young Marlow goalkeeper Will Hunter (pictured above) made a number of terrific saves when Marlow were under great pressure in the second half.
Other Men’s results: –
- 4s lost 4-1 away to BA 1
- 5s beat Staines 3 away 6-1
- 6s drew 4-4 with Staines 4 at home
- The Strollers (Veterans) beat BA at home 3-1
Marlow Ladies’ teams
The Ladies 1s suffered a tough 2-0 defeat away to Surbiton Ladies 3s, but they maintain their league position of 6th place in South Division 1. Ladies 2s travelled to Wallingford to play their Ladies 1s. They won 2-1 with goals from Vic and Kiera Allen. Their win sees them move up into 2nd place of Trysports Premier 1.
Other Ladies’ results: –
- Ladies 3s lost 3-0 to Oxford University 2s.
- Ladies 4s were away to Milton Keynes 2s and lost 1-0. ( The fourth team game was unusual in having one of the players, Linda Wadley, playing with her two daughters Amber and Alice)
- Ladies 5s were at home to Kidlington 1s and won 3-1
- Ladies 6s won against Wallingford 5s to maintain their comfortable lead at the top of the league.
At the beginning of the year we covered Buckingham Hockey Club qualifying for the Jaffa Super 6 finals after finishing 4th in the England Hockey indoor premier league. The finals have now been played and Buckingham became England Hockey’s national champions, beating Bowdon 4-3 in the final, with two goals from Great Marlow School PE teacher, Lottie Porter. Buckingham will now represent England in the European Club Championships next year.
RUGBY
Marlow Men’s 1st XV
On a windy but sunny afternoon, Marlow’s first team travelled to league leaders Witney for a tough encounter against a team unbeaten in Southern Counties North. Witney started proceedings with an uncharacteristic error from the kick-off which led to a Marlow scrum in the middle of the park but after some early handling errors from the travelling side Witney soon had the ascendancy, exploiting the space behind the Marlow defence with kicks and good phase play.
After a shaky defensive display, Marlow were penalised 10 metres from the line and conceded the first 3 points of the contest with an easy penalty kick in front of the posts. 3-0 to Witney. In the next 10 minutes, Marlow continued to struggle with the intensity of the Witney attack, with the home side scoring a disallowed in the right-hand corner soon after the re-start. With some further exchanges of possession, Witney eventually finished a good back’s move with a try on the left wing. Luckily for the visitors, the tricky conversion was narrowly missed and bounced off the posts. 8-0 to Witney.
With 8 points conceded so early in the game, and with the Marlow defence lacking its’ typical energy and concentration, the large home crowd could have been fooled into thinking this game was only going in one direction. However, Marlow suddenly switched gears and started to show what they were capable of. The defensive line started to brim with confidence as huge hits from the Marlow back row partnership of Ian Thomson and Alex Spicer began to blunt the Witney attack. Soon, Marlow were camped in Witney’s half and for the next 20 minutes started to implement the structures that the coaching staff have put in place. The Marlow backs, led by skipper Hugo Jafari, started to break down the opposition defensive line with well-executed lines of running and phase play. It was not long before a fine training ground move led to the first real opportunity of the day for Marlow, with prop Ed Smyth slotting in the stand-off position and passing out the back to a defiant Jafari who created a convincing 2 on 1 in the left-hand corner. Unfortunately, the strong wind took the ball away from the finger tips of winger Freddie Lewis, however, this passage of play continued to give Marlow confidence.
Marlow’s first points came from impressive interplay within the forwards. After a series of pick and go’s on Witney’s try line, with strong carries from second rowers Jack Henderson and Ben Smith, the ball was shipped to Stuart “Sly” Sylvester who crashed over a well-deserved try, duly converted by Lewis. 8-7 to Witney. From this point onwards, the game was very much an arm wrestle between 2 very well-matched sides; Witney impressed with their back-line finding space in all areas of the pitch, and Marlow replying with huge bulldozing runs from Stu Jordan and flanker Will Reynolds. Towards the end of the first half, Witney were penalised, and Marlow took the available points from the resultant penalty to take the lead for the first time; 10-8 to Marlow. The end of a tiring half ended with Marlow on top but realising that the game was far from over as Witney would benefit from the strong wind in the second half.
After a reflective team talk, Marlow kicked off the second half with similar positive energy to that which was shown at the end of the first half, with calm and collected patterns of play demonstrating Marlow’s mindset. However, it wasn’t long until Witney started to pick up the pace and the majority of the next period was played in the visitor’s half, not helped by some forced changes to Marlow due to injury. Witney strung together a number of phases to eventually create a hole in the visitor’s defence for which the home side took advantage of for a well-worked try under the posts to regain the lead. 15-10 to Witney.
Marlow continued to put pressure on the home side’s defence and proved to be a menace in the line-out and scrum for which Marlow dominated throughout most of the match. The attacking charge was populated by a number of storming runs from Jordan and man-of-the-match, Chris Clarke. The hard work paid off when a penalty was awarded to Marlow and promptly scored. Unfortunately, hopes of an upset faded away as Witney responded with a well-worked try under the posts. Marlow gave everything in the closing stages but the final score remained at 22-13.
Marlow Ladies XV
Marlow Ladies made the long journey into central London on Sunday to face Hackney Ladies for the second time this season. Conditions under foot were challenging with a fair amount of standing water. This made the first 15 minutes fairly equal with both teams trying to gain a foothold.
Ball handling was also problematic but Marlow managed to put together some quick passing to allow Pippa Pearce to run into the corner and put the first points on the board. Hackney were a strong attacking threat from the start and several times only the last couple of Marlow backs prevented a Hackney try. Despite this, Marlow also remained an attacking threat and added another try after 25 mins. This time being scored by Trena.
It looked as though the score would remain at 0-10, but just before the whistle, Hackney capped off a strong push from a penalty to score under the posts. Neither team were able to convert their tries so the half time score was 5-10.
As the second half progressed, Hackney’s greater numbers allowed them to replace tired legs and really ramp up the pressure on Marlow. To their credit, Marlow resisted that pressure with the same defensive performance that saw them leading in the first half and were even able to add to their lead, Linda Kavumbura powering around the Hackney defence to score the final try of the game.
A fine performance from all of the Marlow side saw them win 5-15 and achieve their 6th win of the season.
Other Marlow results: –
- Amersham & Chiltern U16s 17 – 38 Marlow U16s: (The U16s maintain unbeaten run as they prepare for return to league action)
- Marlow 3rd XV 36 – 17 Reading Abbey 3rd XV
FOOTBALL
Marlow FC
Marlow FC extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to five matches after a 2-0 win at Uxbridge in the South Central Division.
The Blues have not tasted defeat since the loss at title-chasing Hanwell Town over three weeks ago and this most recent success sees them climb up to 11th position in the table.
Goals came from either side of the break by Marlow’s Ashleigh Artwell and Jordan Edwards.
Marlow make the trip to Hertford Town this Saturday 3pm.
Marlow United
Marlow United suffered back to back loses, firstly away against Wallingford Town, losing 1-0. Followed by a 4-2 defeat at home to Abingdon United.
United remain 9th in the league.
