OD's A XV Fight to the Last Against the Odds

OD’s made a terrific start with the forwards gaining territory through some strong drives from the likes of Larry “shut that door” Grayson and Martin “somebody’s dinged my motor” Howard. This led to space being found on the right for flying winger Shola to scream past the clutches of multiple Dartfordians and touch down in the corner for an early score.

Dart’s then came back into the game with well taken tries, their speedy full back proving particularly illusive and creating havoc in the OD’s ranks. Given the shortage of players on the pitch for OD’s their defence against Dart’s attacks and effective rolling maul was commendable.

At half time the OD’s were a couple of scores down but still well in the game. Ranks were bolstered at the break with the arrival of club legend Linval “the peg leg” Antonio, generously donated by the rampant 3rd team.

The OD’s again started the second half well, with Big Joe Catarino, Doc and the resurgent Nick Piers putting the Dart’s scrum under intense pressure. Dart’s conceded a succession of penalties and OD’s took advantage by sustaining territory and recycling the ball well to send Aylmer crashing over underneath the posts having taken a short ball in the centres.

However, the repost from Dart’s followed immediately allowing them to maintain a healthy margin of safety. They recognised the strength of their rolling maul off the line out and used it to good effect, tying in OD’s defenders and creating space in which to attack.

The OD’s then struck back with two fantastic tries. JP “purple plums” Mills ran over half the length of the pitch on a counter attack fending off a plethora of Dart’s defenders to score in the right hand corner. Unfortunately for JP, whilst diving for the line he managed to land his crown jewels on the knee of a Dart’s defender who was attempting to prevent the score. The resulting howls from Mills caused initial concern and then much chortling amongst both sets of players. The unfortunate Mills applied half a can of Deep Freeze to the affected area, returning to the pitch once he had reassured himself that everything was still in the right place.

Antonio then proved that he is able to outwit defences even whilst only having one good leg, when he took a pass just inside the Darts 22 and danced around three defenders to score in the corner. Dart’s were concerned that they could lose the game from this point but responded extremely well, scoring at least three further unanswered trys against a tiring OD’s team who had played the whole game without a full set of players.

The OD’s were deprived of the services of Shotton for the final ten minutes as he was shown a yellow card for demonstrating his dislike for being punched in the face.

Man of the match for the OD’s was Howard whose tackle count for the day was immense. D**k of the day honours were shared between Shotton for the aforementioned offence and Condon, who was heard to shout “slow down JP” when Mills was speeding down the pitch for his ultimately painful score.