Amersham & Chiltern Minis into Twickenham Finals

Over a cold and very windy Easter weekend, three mini rugby teams from Amersham & Chiltern battled with the elements and the opposition from clubs throughout the country at the annual Nottingham qualifying tournament to secure a place in the finals to be held at Twickenham on Saturday 31st May as a curtain raiser to the Guinness Premiership final.

Amersham & Chiltern's Under 9’s return unbeaten with 6 wins and 1 draw, scoring 25 tries and conceding 5. They topped their pool and go to Twickenham in the Winners Cup competition. David Choules, the Lead coach of the Age Group said "The team played with a maturity way beyond their years, with flowing running rugby, silky handling and furious tackling. Chiltern returned some great results, beating a well drilled Teddington and drawing with pre-tournament favourites, Brighton. Congratulations must go to the whole squad, coaches and supporters on a great performance all round". (Team: Bret Edmondson, Rory Pond, Nicholas Smart, Will Porter, Dan Burridge, Hugo Bellamy, Jack Greenstreet, Jake Choules, Robert Hall, Elliott Smith, George Docwra, Luke Upton, Gethin Ross, Jack Ward)

At Under 10s, the Amersham team reach the Twickenham finals through the Plate competition. They started well beating Barnstable 6 tries to nil. However, the sleet and the wind impaired Amersham's naturally running style of play. Consequently, subsequent losses against Wallingford, Old Northamptonians and Macclesfield resulted in there being much to do on Easter Saturday. The team rose to the occasion and won against Hertford, Nottingham, Bury St Edmunds and York to secure a Twickenham place. Simon ffitch the lead coach commented " The team played with resilience and showed that when faced with adversity they could rise to the challenge". (Team: Theo Reynolds, Harry Sutherland, Tom Lawrence, Oliver Napier-Munn, Rhodri Owen, Jason Kilbey, Woody Bowcock, Jamie Anderson, Tom ffitch, Charlie Herold, Tobin Hardman, Max Collingbourne, Michael Ferguson, Bill Hughes, Oliver Smart)

At Under 11s, Amersham won 5 out of 5 matches, scoring 15 tries and conceding 2 to secure a place for the third year running in the  Winners Cup competition at Twickenham. The team started in impressive style beating West Norfolk four tries to nil. They followed this with impressive wins over Derby, Bedford and York. They then played a quarter final match against Old Northamptonians. This was a tense match in front of a very large crowd with all space taken up around the pitch, the boys rose to the occasion winning by 2 tries to nil. Tim Naylor, the lead coach said that " All 18 players in the squad contributed to the success and played a brand of rugby that brought admiration from the other teams. This squad regularly plays rugby that is both fair and entertaining and this success is due reward. (Team: Will Price, Adam Constable, Connor Underwood, Elliott Ayling, Alex Ward, Joe Batt, Ollie Oakley, Sascha Tchen, Charlie Perkins, Robert Hughes, Luke Naylor, Harri Summerfield, Ollie Choules, Angus Knott, Max Adcock, Ben Smith, Seb Hanekom, Jamie Wheeler)

Mini Chairman, Stephen Lawrence commented that "It is a real achievement for all three mini rugby teams entered into this prestigious competition to secure places in the Twickenham finals. It shows the strength of the squads in each of these age groups at Amersham and the quality of the coaching they receive each Sunday".