Hammers 1^st  team continued on the road this week with a ‘short’ commute out to Marlborough, for the clubs 2^nd fixture of 2024. The commute of course, included the traditional away bus quiz, in which Head Coach Mark, Lewis Litt (Big Josh) and Mad dog Maddigan took the win with a questionable 39/50 questions correct. The winning teams’ debateable proximity to the Quiz Master, Stephen Harris caused an outrage. It almost brought the tradition into disrepute and risked dividing the team before a minute of rugby had been played.

This weeks’ fixture was the second time the 1^st team had faced Marlborough RFC this season – some may remember (or have tried to forget) witnessing the Hammers drop in the final minutes and in typical Hammers fashion… losing at Home by less than a try. For the Hammers, it was an important game – going into the day, the Hammers remained steady on the ladder in 8^th place with 29 points, Brighton sitting above at 7^th with 35 points, and Maidenhead trailing closely behind on 21 points.

The day was clear, the air a brisk but thankfully dry 1-2 degrees. The Hammers lost the toss, forced to kick-off but running downhill.  Frustratingly, and is their way, they decided to also set themselves up for an up-hill battle, the opening kick-off going 10 meters backwards not forwards. “Never send a back to do a forwards job” could be heard from front row veteran and club stalwart, Rogan, celebrating his 38^th lap around the sun that week.

The first 20 minutes saw each team come away with a penalty goal, with VC Joe Carolan, (now 2^nd highest points scorer in the division (114)) knocking 3 points through the posts. Marlborough followed up quickly with an unconverted try, to which the Hammers quickly responded, with Tim Russel scoring not once but twice,  one under the post and one of the back of a driving mall. With both converted again by Joe, the boys started to feel comfortable.

It was not to be like that for long. Marlborough, known for their size and physicality, began to play to their strengths, putting several of the lads through their paces and testing shoulders and ribs. There was a notable late hit on James Maddigan, which could be heard from the sideline, however, the Hammers also contributed their fair share of questionable hits, with back row enforcer, Harry “Sid” Scarr sent to the bin in the final minutes of the 1^st half with a yellow card. This yellow could easily have been a red as, from some angles, Sid almost decapitated the opposition winger, but the Hammers managed to fight out the rest of the 1^st half without conceding another point (while being a player down). First half score 8 -20

What followed was a second half battle between the Hammers running rugby and Marlborough’s size and physicality. One more try from the Hammers, scored and converted by Joe. Not long after this, one arsey kick led to a late try in the 2^nd half for Marlborough, shifting the momentum into the hands of the home side. Hammers still had a marginal lead, which sensed a repeat of their first encounter with the home side and proceeded to lift accordingly. Our line was assailed, our sideline groaned – another late game loss was on the cards…

Que the bomb squad – the notorious and welcome return of Matt Killeen and Ricky Drewitt, who joined the game after both had a short stint away from the club. Putting out one of their better defensive sets of the season, and despite Marlborough scoring another (almost identical try) in the corner and almost levelling the score to 27-30. we managed to hold out and eventually see out the final whistle for the win.

Final score 27-30  to the Hammers.  Elation. Joy.  And Hammers ending the day with 33 points on the ladder.

Special mentions go to the Man of the Match – Alex Spicer who also celebrated his 50^th Cap for the Hammers 1^st team.

Game off was trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, but it was very much game on at Hurlingham Park as Hammersmith & Fulham welcomed Horsham. Both clubs in their first season in Regional 1 South Central, formerly known as National 3, and the Hammers were looking to avenge the result from the last time the two sides met in the league.

You’d be excused for thinking that the home side had stayed in the warmth of the changing rooms as they failed to turn up at kick off, with Horsham scoring an early try from a driving maul.

Hammers metaphorically warmed up and challenged the resulting kick off well with the two ‘arry’s, Barry Scarr and Garry Boyd, making life difficult for Horsham and winning the ball back. With momentum building, Hammersmith began building phases with the ball eventually going wide to Tim Russell. Russell smoothly got the offload away to Zander Stephen who was back in the team following a duo of self inflicted concussions to the duo of Josh’s in the last fixture against Camberley – Josh Smith on the receiving end of a people’s elbow from Scarr and Josh A-A being kneed in the head by Alex Spicer, an easy thing to do to such a small man. Anyway, you’re here to read about the Horsham game. Stephen smoothly gathered the ball from Russell, romping in from just outside the 22, evading multiple tackles and successfully holding off 3 defenders as he powered over. Others who saw this try say he was a matter of centimetres out, juggled the ball before eventually gathering and just got it down but there’s no Veo to prove the first wrong so we’ll go with that. Joe Caravan was on conversions for the day, securing 3 of the 5. This try was out-wide so every chance it was 1 of the 2 misses.

Another reclaimed kick off from Hammersmith, attempting to rewrite the wrongs of Camberley, saw momentum build. A penalty win lead to a kick going deep in the Horsham 22 and Scott VBL getting the ball in his hands, a successful jumpy jumpy throw catch to Scarr produced a secure maul with VBL, man-of-the-match-to-be Toby Hiram and the skipper chunky Tom Proctor jostling for the ball at the back. Proctor pulled rank and got the meat pie.

A 3rd secured kick off in a row, a new club record, saw another attack from SW6s finest. Play built down the left, down the right, back to the left before returning to the right. Russell, who had taken a week off from his velvet footwear, remembered he had pace and took off down the wing. This time he didn’t need an offload to Stephen and got a try of his own, number 50 in the red, white and blue of Hammersmith and Fulham RFC – a fine achievement from the former Havant youth.

Another kick off to receive, this time Spicer took charge. The Gilbert of the day was in his hands but the end result wasn’t the same. Whilst ball had been won in the air, the backs messed up their kicky kicky catch catch, a surprise given the amount of time spent on such exercises in training. A charged down kick saw Horsham react first and narrow the scores.

24-12 half-time.

As expected, Horsham came out firing second half, determined to narrow the deficit.  Hammersmith soaked up the pressure with some staunch defending. Eventually they got their break with some Barbarians-esque passing, Caravan finding Scarr with a little out the back offload. Scarr scuttled down the field with a 3 on 1 with the fullback, an easy try I hear you say. No. In what can only be described as a moment of madness, the former Bucks u16 regional back row come Sid look alike thought he was South West Londons answer to Sonny Bill Williams – spoiler here sports fans, he isn’t. Ball was flicked out the back of his hands to Spicer’s feet. Knock-on. Idiot. Stephen substituted at the resulting scrum, his day was up and so is the rest of the detail.

Horsham found their way back in to the Hammersmith 22 with Hammers eventually turning over the ball. What should have been an easy exit saw Dugdale pass to Ross Anderson, we hoped. Dugdale was looking to join in the fun of handing out friendly fire concussions with the ball rocketing off Ed Haynes head. Horsham continued to build pressure narrowing the gap with their 3rd try.

A different side after half-time and Stephen’s substitution, Hammers couldn’t find the rhythm of the first half. The sidelines were calling for composure or something special to calm the boys, or both. A breakaway saw momentum build with Caravan dotting down. This conversion was from in front of the posts, 7 points.

With the game nearing its conclusion Horsham pressed hard with a determination to get something from the game. Eventually finding themselves over the white line with 5 minutes to go. Conversion slotted, meaning they were taking 2 bonus points back down the M23.

31-24 the final score. A hard fought victory in near freezing conditions. Another 5 points at home and Hammersmith and Fulham find themselves at 7th at the half way point of the season.

MOTM – Toby Hiram
DOTD – Barry Scarr