An Octobers day with the rugby season well underway! The sky was clear bar a few wispy clouds passing by at a slow meandering pace. The sun though high was warm not the blistering beacon it had been through June and July this year. You could feel the autumnal bite when these wisps of cloud passed in front of the sun and that coupled with the small of the leaves that recently fell make Egham a great place to play at this time of year! Except we weren’t playing in Egham, oh no we had a true Away game to get to - we were going to South London for a top of the table clash.

Streatham-Croydon RFC is just that! Somewhere between Streatham and Croydon… Croydon has three towns Croydon North, South and West so it’s always a lottery how many players will turn up and when. The 2’s on this occasion were in good health and had a team with subs, which is always a novelty.

Last year when Streatham-Croydon played the 2’s the result was heavily in favour of this years hosts, primarily due to the fact that Egham Hollowegians played with only 12 men something those guys rose too and did well to keep the result to just shy of a 30 point deficit.

Streatham-Croydon is one of the oldest Clubs in the Country! Formed in 1870, Egham Hollowegians are but a sperm and egg if age is to be compared formed in 2005. Young v’s Old and just as the team members were thinking about this historic and beautiful ground we were underway. By the time the 2’s had all agreed that there was more cloud in the sky in South London the bulldozer of a bigger more experienced pack had trundled down the field and scored.

Going 7-0 down in five minutes is not to anyones liking and Stevie quite vocally portrayed that. The vetran Scot not knowing how to spell Streatham never mind know where he was, was intent that his young 2’s side bolstered by new members to the Club from Holloway and Fiji regrouped to put up a bit more of a fight.

That fight was slow to materialise and again the Streatham-Croydon team (we’ll call the SC from now on) stuck it up their jumpers and boshed through the middle. They could see our backs were younger (but not lighter with Matt Day, Muff and Alex having a heavier combined weight than our front row) and hungry for the ball so avoided them and took route one. Again Streatham-Croydon scored and converting went 14-0 up.

The game plan had to change but it was going to be an individual effort that would give Egham some hope. A mistake by SC centres left a ball loose on the ground on the halfway. Matt Day sprung to action picking up the ball shimmering through a couple half hearted tackles and found the gas to run the ball in under the posts! 14-7.

Matt Days effort was not to change our fortunes and at halftime the team were down 21-7 needing a hell of a 2^nd half to keep points difference down. Changes were rung out and the game really did change to Egham’s favour. Lee came on for the returning to match fitness Keith Tomasso and brought some much needed aggression in the pack and with Wise coming on the wing and Ivan taking the full back when the ball did make it out to the backs two scores in fifteen minutes left Egham trailing just one score behind as SC could only add a penalty to their score in that period.

EH had a chance to tie the game with another break releasing Wise on the wing after a backs play from their own 22 but he lacked the gas Matt had shown earlier and the move came to an agonising end at the oppositions 22.

24-17 with SC tiring and the Egham Skipper urging his pack to hold their own it took another piece of individual skill to change the game, this time from SC their fullback nicknamed Arnie and rightly so powered through the team from his full back position with the speed of JK and weight of Hugh. Gee’s he was a big guy and made so many gaps they were bound to score and extend their lead.

The lead was growing and the game coming to an end but no one’s head went down and when they scored a last minute try and the game was finished all could hold their heads up high. If SC are top of the table EH have a real chance this year to challenge them for the Conference 3 title. Lots of good points as they look to move forward next week with a home game against Stoke Park.