Sunday, December 10, 2006

Herts 1:2 in National Cup qualifier

Hertfordshire's best ever year in the National Cup continued today with local clubs taking both qualifying places in the rearranged South East qualifier held at Letchworth.

A last minute withdrawl from Surrey side Cramberley left four teams in the contest - Letchworth, Welwyn, Saracens/Fullerians and last year's South-East League champions Worthing.

Letchworth and Worthing kicked off early in order to get the fixtures through before nightfall, and their performance gave the other Herts sides some useful pointers on how to play the unknown Sussex team. Letchworth dominated up front, which starved Worthing's fast and talented backline of useful ball for most of the game and in the end the host side were probably far more comfortable winners than the 10-7 scoreline suggests, Worthing's only score coming at the end of the game.

Welwyn played the south coast side next - and, with the help fresh legs, strolled to a 48-0 win. Meanwhile the hosts match faced Saracens/Fullerians and recorded a second victory - and again a more comfortable win than 10-5 might suggest, and despite playing with only 14 in the second half owing to one player falling ill.

With two teams going through Letchworth had now qualified but still had to face Welwyn, who need a win to guarantee their place in the next round. The first half was an exciting, closely matched affair with Welwyn edging it 10-5 before going on to stretch their lead against a tiring home team to 34-5 by the end.

Saracens/Fullerians were Welwyns last opponents. Coming out of a narrow loss to Worthing, Saracens performed superbly under the floodlights holding Welwyn to the narrowest wining margin of the day - 17-0.

So on 4th February three Herts teams will be playing in the southern finals of the National Cup - Herts Barbarians U14s, Welwyn U17s, and Letchworth U17s. Can one of them take the next step to national glory? We shall see...

Results:
Letchworth 10, Worthing 7
Welwyn 48, Worthing 0
Letchworth 10, Saracens/Fullerians 5
Saracens/Fullerians 10, Worthing 19
Letchworth 5, Welwyn 34
Saracens/Fullerians 0, Welwyn 17

South East Qualifier P W L F A Pts
Welwyn3309959
Letchworth32125467
Worthing31226685
Saracens/Fullerians30315463

Photgraphs from some of todays games can be found here

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what happens next or how do you progress to the final?

John Birch said...

Semi-final round, probably in Dorset, on 4th February.