Overton Under 15s are sponsored by
RW Armstrong and Sons
Firstly a big thank you to our tour sponsors,
without who this tour
would not have been possible....
J Squadron
2nd Overton Underground Camel Corp
'Sponsored by Turkeys not played by them'
Click on Tim the Turkey to veiw tour Photos
Day One (Thursday 20th March 2008)
The scout group (Lead coach Gary, Tour Manager Julie, Corp. Members Alex and Nick) set out under the cover of darkness Thursday night ensuring that the accommodation had been secured for the arrival of the rest of the squad.
Day Two (Friday 21st March 2008)
The battle Bus Moves out
The rest of the squadron travelled in convoy, Good Friday, lead by
Tony ‘The Totter’ Aris in the Camel Corp
Ba
ttle bus, and rear guard
Jock in the ‘J’ team van (sound better than A team) heading South West for the secret location just outside Newquay. On arrive the team quickly split up into the 8 caravans provided.
The afternoon was spent with a visit to
Watergate Bay where some of the more hardy players ventured into the sea just to prove it was as cold as the weather forecast had predicted. Other choose to stroll along the beach in order
to find out the ‘Real’ wind chill factor. It wasn’t too long before they were back in the warmth of the vehicles.
After regaining their circulation, drying off and warming up the team visited the idyllic town of Newquay. famous for, other than surfing nothing that we really want to talk about.
In the evening the teams rallied in the social
area to discuss plans for the impending matches against local opposition. It was at this point that the younger members of the squad had decided to hold a court case for Paul ‘Jock’ Inglis. The punishment, for crimes which will remain a corp secret, was that Jock should wear boxing gloves for the period of the tour.
Day Three (Saturday 22nd March 2008)
Battle day dawns…
With a hearty breakfast cooked by Steve West AKA Barbie (named after the BBQ he used not the doll) the boys headed out for Camborne RFC a 30 mins drive away.
Arriving at Camborne RFC the team were quickly escorted a short walk to the facilities they were to use. An impressive pitch complete with two grandstands awaited them. It was found that this pitch is the home of the National Division Two team The Cornish Pirates. Kick off at 11:00 the team were a little asleep having to soak up pressure from the home side. With the defence strong and resolute Overton turned the ball over several times before the backline shipping the ball quickly to the wing, released Myles Roberts-Bailey for the fist of the teams tries.
The extremely powerful Cornish side continued to try to breach the Overton defence but Overton’s discipline and patience paid off again when from quick ball at the breakdown Fly-Half Tom Humberstone (Pictured earlier in the Pink wetsuit) opened up the Camborne defence to put Jonathan Inglis in for his first try of the campaign.
In mixed weather conditions ranging from rain to sun to hail and all complimented with
a chilling wind Overton settled into their normal game pattern with the forwards dominating the breakdown areas and the backline taking every opportunity to break the Camborne defence, which was obviously struggling with the pace at which the game was being played.
The Camborne attack had to resort to kicking a penalty in front of the post for their first three points.
Overton stared the second half as they had ended the first with pressure resulting in more tries from Danny Hunter, Jonathan Inglis and Myles Roberts-Bailey.
The Overton defence was finally breached in the final minutes of the game when after several attacks and relentless line outs the big Camborne forwards forced the try wide on the left wing. Camborne failed to convert against the wind.
A great game played in great spirits…
Final score
Camborne 8 J Squadron 28
Day Four (Sunday 23rd March 2008)
A 25 minute journey South West saw the team travel to Redruth RFC to face the home team and visitors Bodmin.
In their opening encounter, Overton faced Bodmin RFC. Like the previous opponents Bodmin started very strongly and took the game to Overton who were suffering from lack of sleep as well as the cold conditions. The first ten minutes was spent defending against an onslaught of Bodmin. The coaches took an opportunity during a break in play to focus the team.
Bodmin had adopted a rush defence against Overton but as our teams fitness levels showed as they started to carve holes in the Bodmin lines. It wasn’t too long before the Overton forwards were dominating the contact areas allowing the backline to exploit their speed and ball handling skills.
With tries from Jonathan Inglis, Myles Roberts-Bailey, Tom Small and Danny Hunter and conversions from Tom Humberstone Overton ran out 33 – 3 winners.
Redruth, the next opponents were a much bigger team than Overton and had recently won the Cornish Cup. Their reputation was one of physicality and a severe
dislike of losing. Overton started positively with an early try from Myles Roberts-Bailey followed by Jonathan Inglis and Danny Hunter. Redruth came back strongly but resilient defence from Overton meant that Redruth failed to break the line. The Redruth coach commented that the defence from our boys was some of the best he had seen, the more they threw at us the more we absorbed. He went on to say that we had not allowed their players to get up any momentum and had stopped or in many cases knocked their attack back.
Final Score
Redruth 0 J Squadron 28
Day Five (Monday 25th March 2008)
The final frontier
With the rugby over to was time to turn to the Go-Kart track. In atrocious conditions the players driving skills were tested to the limits. After three heats and a final race off the day was won by Callum Aris, Michael West got second place.
Then begins the long march home.....
