Chew Valley Cats v Westbury Ladies – Sunday 8th Sept.
The sun was beating down on the perfect pitch of Chew Valley RFC as Westbury Ladies took to the field for their first 15’s game of the season.
The summer break saw some new players recruited and some former players move into retirement and take up new roles within the team. After a nervous first 10 minutes, Westbury Ladies soon got into the swing of things but some handling errors saw Chew score their first try and conversion from the resulting scrum.
Westbury heads didn’t drop, and it wasn’t long before some defensive pressure of their own saw Sam Eley break away down the wing and stepped four Chew players to score their first try. Lana Plummer converted. Westbury built some strong forward phases, putting in place some new game play they had been working on in pre-season and Anna Hemingway crossed the whitewash from a quick penalty, taking the score to 12-7. Conversion missed.
Chew came out of the traps at a great pace after half time and scored their second try down the far wing. They didn’t convert. Chew added two more unconverted tries to lead 24-12. Westbury spent a long time camped in Chew’s 22 before Chew scored their final try, unconverted, to win 29-12. The score line doesn’t reflect the positives in the Westbury Ladies game, however, there are things to work on in training.
Congratulations to Sasha Smith and Sarah Dinnis (on her debut for Westbury) who were awarded forward and back on the match respectively. Also massive congratulations to Marguerite Roger, Mariana Mosquera Fernandez and Hannah Crossley who were outstanding, all playing their first ever league games.
