U8s off to a flying start at Henley

Despite rising early to wet weather, and many of us enduring huge traffic queues through Henley town centre, the parents of Alton Under 8s were today rewarded with dry conditions and some excellent rugby at the festival hosted by Henley RFC.

Being the first festival of the season, the boys had some rule changes to adapt to – including bigger pitches, bigger teams and 7-tag turnovers. Despite this, we got off to a flying start with a comfortable enough 4-2 win over Bancroft and followed it up by digging deep to take a nail-biting victory against a strong Reading Abbey side. We then secured a third win, 7-5 over Old Albanians, before coming up against our hosts from Henley. A huge effort was sadly not rewarded as a very impressive Henley side pulled away near the end to take the game 8-5. Finally, proper order was restored with a 5-1 win over Marlow to round off a memorable day’s work.

The players can take huge pride in their achievements today. Every single one of them contributed equally and any one of them could have been award our Player of the Week trophy. This accolade went to Tom Stevens and a special mention must go to Jack Worthington who slotted in seamlessly in his first festival wearing the red and black.

Thank you to all the parents in attendance for your commitment and support today, the coaches couldn’t do their bit without you behind them!

Squad: Finley Cole, Zac D’Arcy, Cameron Grinstead, Jake Lloyd, James Manning, Tom Stevens, Oscar Thirlwall and Jack Worthington.