Crawley U10's well-deserved winners of Bronze Cup

After a tough start to the season last week, our Under 10s enjoyed a better Sunday at our own Festival. Despite a last minute change of plan when we had to field a second team due to the unplanned absence of Burgess Hill, both teams played with plenty of effort and endeavour and in the right spirit. The Blue team featured a number of new players in their first games, and they performed brilliantly against tough opposition.

Crawley Blues featured Anthony Nabar (captain), Ronnie Emsley, Jake Wragg, Zachary Lovell, Jacob Adolphe, Faris Webb & Hilton Cloete

The festival was a daunting prospect for the Blues, with 3 new players taking part in their first festival, joining the 4 regular players in the squad. The signs looked promising with their first attack producing a fine try, but unfortunately the more experienced opposition pressed home their advantages.

During their next three games the Blues held their heads high and battled through to the Tin Cup playoffs but lost out in the end to more experienced sides.

With good leadership from Anthony Nabar and soild efforts by Jacob, Faris and Zach, our new boys Ronnie, Hilton and Jake played their parts with great enthusiasm.

Crawley Reds featured Finlay Donjon (captain), Logan Thomas, Tiarnan Currie, Ali Noui, Josh Robins, Oliver Piggot, Morgan Zacharias & William Berry-Elvin

Match 1: Crawley v Brighton
Renewing their rivalry with Brighton from last week, the Reds started slowly allowing Brighton the momentum and Brighton pushed their advantage early and scored two early tries. After the restart the match became much closer, but Brighton edged forward to victory despite a much better performance from the Reds compared to last week. Brighton were the eventual winners of the Gold Trophy for the tournament.

Match 2: Crawley v East Grinstead
The local derby between Crawley and East Grinstead started brightly for the Reds with an early score which settled the nerves. The Reds pushed forward looking to increase their advantage but were caught out by a couple of turnovers by East Grinstead, giving East Grinstead the advantage at half time. The Reds started the second half brightly and levelled the match quickly. Both teams pushed forward and a further score to each team ended the match a 3-3 draw. The Reds best result to date delivered progress to the Bronze Semi Final.

Semi Final vs Worthing
Grasping the initiative from their last game, the Reds came out firing on all cylinders and Worthing did not know what hit them early on - with a good solid defensive line they held their ground with little opportunity given to Worthing. The Reds were comfortable winners, winning 3-0 thanks to 2 tries from Finlay Donjon & 1 from Tiarnan Currie - success in the semi-final guaranteeing the boys a place in the Bronze Final against Bognor Regis.

The Final vs Bognor
With the momentum still high from the last 2 games, the Reds played at full throttle and held Bognor in the early exchanges, pushing forward as the game progressed, giving Bognor little time to settle. The boys pushed forward and held Bognor to the end, recording a 2-0 win thanks to solid performances from all of the team and tries from Oliver Piggott & Ali Noui. The boys were well-deserved Winners of the Bronze Pool.

The player named Player of the Tournament by all coaches was Morgan Zacharias - well done! A great effort was made by all.

(Match report details provided by Paul Berry & James Bundock)