Amersham & Chiltern 0 - Wimbledon 59

A freezing day in the Chilterns and numb fingers in the sparse crowd but an emphatic victory for
Wimbledon away against the league’s strugglers. But Wimbledon made light of the conditions to
run in 10 tries although Bryan Croke with his conversion attempts found the conditions more
difficult, only being successful with four. The scoring started almost from the start when an attack
from right wing Tommy Moore found lock Campbell Tait in support and his pass to centre Jordan
Spittle gave a try out on the left, the conversion attempt was the first miss of the afternoon. The
second try came after six minutes when the pack were held up over the line, the resulting 5m scrum
led to no.8 Roy Godfrey passing to scrum half Rhys Morgan who was over, Croke was nearer with his
conversation attempt, this time off the post, but again not successful. The next came on 11minutes
when a Wimbledon penalty award was taken as a scrum, quick ball from Morgan led to Moore and
finally full back Matt Gilbert scored. He followed this effort up with a good defensive tackle on
Amersham’s flying right wing Lloyd Anderson.

The next Wimbledon attack led to left wing Josh Charles being stopped near to the line and this
ended the half with Wimbledon ahead 15 – 0.

Amersham received the kick-off for the second half and immediately knocked-on giving a
Wmbledon scrum in the Amersham 22m area. The resulting score came from prop James Gillespie
after Wimbledon pushed back the Amersham scrum. This was the bonus point try and was
converted by Croke, the next score was by flanker Dylan Thomas on 44minutes and converted to 27
– 0. At this point Wimbledon sent on their bench players and Thomas showed his versatility by
switching to hooker to give Jesse Muir a break. An ankle injury to Matt Gilbert required Croke to
return to the pitch and on 55 min he gave a dazzling diagonal run to the line wide out on the left for
an individual try, again not converted. Replacement Shawn Renwick was the next scorer but
Amersham were not done-for yet when they mounted their first attack of the match, some firm
defence was needed to protect the Wimbledon line. Broken play in midfield led to Morgan scoring
and finally late tries for replacement Dan Cheers on at fullback and Bryan Croke gave the final score.

Next Saturday Wimbledon 1 st XV will face a far harder match away to 3 rd placed Westcombe Park
with a 2.30pm kick-off.