Under 08

Crewe & Nantwich 5 - Sandbach 5 Sun 14 January 2001 After a slightly delayed start as we played ?find the unfrozen bit of ground?, a smaller than usual pitch area was coned out and the game commenced. From the off, it was a clear local Derby match with both sides fiercely determined to uphold their honour. Crewe won the kick off and up to half way through the first half had made about 10 metres of progress towards the Sandbach line; such was the commitment of the tackling (helped by the narrower than usual pitch). Crewe finally managed to penetrate the Sandbach defence with a looping run across the pitch to find the only bit of space available in the game so far. At the restart, this was the first time Sandbach had touched the ball in the game, and after making steady progress towards the home teams line, they got slightly carried away and a forward pass meant that Crewe were back in possession. Realising that this could mean another score for Crewe, Sandbach stepped up a gear and managed to drive the home team almost back to their own line. Half-time - and a welcome rest. With possession from the kick off at the re-start, Sandbach continued to forge forwards and soon became camped on the Crewe line. The narrow pitch provided little in the way of space to move the ball, but gradually the Crewe defence became sucked into the play around the ball. Sandbach seized their opportunity and with a couple of quick passes produced an overlap. Crewe managed to make one tackle, but a quick release of the ball to the Sandbach support saw us cross the line to even the scores. From this point on both sides realised the evenness of the match and the remainder of the game was a tense encounter with total commitment shown by both sides. After a knock on by the home team, Sandbach regained the ball and immediately set off towards the Crewe line; with Crewe equally determined to stop them. As the match drew to a close Sandbach did manage to cross the line, but were adjudged to have been tackled in the process. Final score 5-5 and one of the closest fought games of the season. Well done to both sides for a committed display. Try scorers: William Jepson. _____________________________________________________________________________ Crewe 25 ? Sandbach 35 Another game, another referee! To give all the players a full game, we arranged to play a second match against an essentially unchanged Crewe team. On paper, this looked a tougher test, and so it appeared when after 2 minutes we were two tries down. A swift bit of ?talking? by the coach and a couple of changes to the playing positions had the desired effect. With the game being allowed to flow more openly, both sides now had a chance to create space in which to run. Sandbach seemed to make better use of this opportunity and by half time had run in 4 tries to open up a narrow lead. With a couple of substitutions at half time, Sandbach were back on the boil and stretched out the lead to three tries, showing both pace and special awareness in the process. To their credit, the home team never gave up and the game played 3 minutes beyond full time waiting for the ball to go dead. Crewe retained the ball during this period before eventually scoring to bring the game to a close. Try scorers: William Jepson, Chris Burrows (2), Elliot Moore, Jack Robinson, James Stops (2) Derek Jepson ============================================================ UNDER 7's MATCH REPORT CREWE AND NANTWICH 10 SANDBACH 50. The diversity of the English winter saw icy conditions for the game at Crewe. Following a delayed kick-off, a tenacious Sandbach outfit proceeded from the first whistle to play a fast, incisive, attacking game, which appeared to mesmorise their opponents. Crewe were transfixed by the Sandbach offensive which left them bewildered, and confused. A highlight of this one ?sided encounter saw Sandbach?s Oliver Moore, returning to his former club, and scoring five tries. Paul Moore.