Letchworth U18s had a mixed day winning 2 out 5 games (the sixth game being cancelled when Hertford withdrew from the tournament due to injuries) :
Westcliff 12 Letchworth 0
Aylesford 10 Letchworth 14
Tries : Natalie, Katie
Conversions : Randy (2)
Sudbury 5 Letchworth 12
Tries : Natalie (2)
Conversion : Randy
Basford 17 Letchworth 5
Tries: Hayley
Welbeck College 22 Letchworth 0
and finishing 4th out of 7 in the results on the Basford blog :
Basford 23 points
Westcliff 22 points
Welbeck College 15 points
Letchworth 15 points
Aylesford 13 points
Sudbury 12 points
Hertford 1 point
... not sure I really understand this table! Obviously, Letchworth should be 4th - they were beaten by each of the teams above them - so no problem there - but did Basford win by virtue of a bonus point? All should become clear when the match scores are published.
Westcliff 22 points
Welbeck College 15 points
Letchworth 15 points
Aylesford 13 points
Sudbury 12 points
Hertford 1 point
... not sure I really understand this table! Obviously, Letchworth should be 4th - they were beaten by each of the teams above them - so no problem there - but did Basford win by virtue of a bonus point? All should become clear when the match scores are published.
Anyway, here's a few pictures from the tournament :
Finally, rumours of a radical new youth policy at Letchworth were confirmed when the new U18 scrum-half for 2008-9 was introduced to the team ...
Ok we have asked the question why were Basford allowed the bonus points that put them at the top of the table.
ReplyDeletelets reflect on a good days rugby rather than looking for reasons why another team won.
Ok Westcliff tried to lodge an official complaint that Basford had been given a bonus point when no one else had the opportunity to get one, but it wasn't their fault that Hertford withdrew after their game.(unless the conspiracy theorists believe it was pre arranged between the teams)
The girls finished 4th and on reflection it was a fair indication of how the games went.
Forget looking for excuses go out and play to the best of our ability and show the other teams that we are a force to be reckoned with.
leave the petty stuff to others.
No one can argue (and I know Mike wasn't) that Letchworth should have come higher. As he pointed out, Letchworth were fairly beaten by all of the above and so we have no problem. Therefore, as a team member I have no issue with what happened at Rochford yesterday.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as a player, a fan of rugby and - hopefully - a genuinely honest person, I have to condemn it. Though it would not have affected my team what-so-ever, I know that had I been in Westcliffs position I would certainly have had some words to say about that "interesting" decision by Rochford at what was supposed to be a friendly, charity festival of rugby.
To whoever wrote the comment signed "anonymous" - I shall, of course, continue to go out and play rugby to the best of my ability AND show others that I am a force to be reckoned with. This does not effect my moral outrage that something like this could have happened to a perfectly decent team like Westcliff who I'm sure would have happily agreed to share the title or accept defeat had Rochford won without this suspicious bonus point being awarded.
can i also just say, that the "hertford" team basford played against, wasn't 10 a side defeating the point of the competition, and definatley wasn't made up of "hertford" players, it actually looked more like basford vs basford + a few extras, so why should this game be counted, when noone else even got a chance to play them? i can quite clearly understand why the westcliff team may feel very cheated after the festival, although fair play to basford, as i do think they were worthy winners.
ReplyDeleteThank you, 'Anonymous', for your comments. I would rather you had read what I wrote before commenting on it but, nevertheless, your views are welcome. I think you should note that I accepted in the original article that Letchworth were correctly placed as 4th but, I ask you, should I not question a decision merely because it is not my club that is being unfairly treated? Actually, we at Letchworth believe in fair play for all whether they are in our club or not. If you think that is 'petty stuff' then we will continue to disagree since I perceive fairness to be above all other considerations in sport.
ReplyDeleteRefer "but above all win" debate.
ReplyDeleteHere we go again!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that when ever Letchworth do not get things their own way, they have to resort to the "Basford" sledging.
Lets get one or two things straight about sunday.
Firstly
Hertford unfortunately could not field a full side and came to Basford to borrow some players.
However before they "borrowed" our players, Our Coaches spoke to the coaches of all the other teams to see if they had players to loan to Hertford.
LETCHWORTH, WESTCLIFF, & SUDBURY refused to lend any of their players.
Therefore we lent them players in the spirit of the game being in the fortunate position of having 20+players available.(refer to our header)
Unfortunately this spirit does not seem to extend to others.
Given then that a couple of the players picked up injuries. the Basford and Hertford coaches then went to all the teams again to try and get players, again no one was willing to lend players to Hertford.
It should be noted that some teams only had the bare minimmum where others eg Welbeck had circa 20 players.
Secondly
We were subsequently asked by Sudbury to lend them a couple of players in one particular game. They were offered the 4 girls who had come from Romford.(as they wanted to play together)
however they were not prepared to gaurantee the girls a game anyway.
It would appear that Letchworth have a problem with Basford, or at least those behind letchworth have a problem.
Basford could have lodged a genuine complaint that the game with Westcliff was cut short when they were 3 tries up and dominatin the game which may well have profduced a 4th try and a bonus point. However it was stopped early for all the right reasons.
It is a shame as we have a very healthy and respectful relationship with the 3 Main clubs over the border ie Welwyn, Saracens & Hertford.
Our girls were understandably upset and disappointed to hear that people had tried to lodge official complaints on sunday to get the "dubious" bonus point deducted.
They will give their responses on the pitch!
I for one though am fed up with the continuous carping that comes from your blog.
Last year we had reason to complain about abusive comments made in print towards our girls.
As coach of the U15's I have made the decision that we are withdrawing from our U15 fixtures with Letchworth this season and will find a club to play who will not spew out negative press if the results go against them.
For the record, Aylesford A played Aylesford B in the U15's competition, to which we could have objected to as a win for the A team could have given them an unfair advantage in winning the competition.However as it is all about getting girls playing the game we were quite happy to let them play on.
TR states refer "above all win".
did it go unnoticed to all but Basford that there were teams out there on sunday that felt "play within the spirit of the game" did not apply to them.
ie: refusing to lend players to other teams because they wanted to WIN!
whats wrong with wanting to win? basford obviously want to. i think everyone should stop bad mouthing each other over the web because there is no need for it. the girls get on very well so why can't the coaches? its not you playing the game its the girls so the coaches should not try and fight for them.
ReplyDeleteand the comment about withdrawing the games against letchworth u15's, probably a good thing seeing as letchworth u15's are pretty non exsistent at the moment
despite what anyone else may think, letchworth do not want evryone to hate them, because its not nice for the players to turn up to matches and trials and have people look down their nose at them because the coaches cannot keep their opinions to themselves, its not fair as from a players point of veiw, i can say that i don't actually agree with any of the opinions stated on here, therefore i would rather the opinions did not come out on my club website.
ReplyDeletebasford won fair and square, everyone just get over it.
look basildon won fair n square even if you took hertford out of the tournement and it wasnt based on points we stil would have won because we never lost a match .... jus face the facts we have worked damn hard over the summer to improve n beat our last year rivals and we all suceeded as a team at the rochford tournement! JUST GROW UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletejohn - we couldn't do it without you, but you really should stop bitching because it is really really petty and there is actually no need for it.
ReplyDelete'Anonymous' - please note that John did not write the original article and has made no comment about it.
ReplyDeleteI also wish to reiterate that the original article, which was written by me, did not do anything other than say that Letchworth were correctly placed in 4th position and that I did not understand the points awarded to other teams as I did not have the results.
At no point has anyone from Letchworth made any criticism of Basford players and at no point have we made any suggestion that Letchworth's 4th position was anything other than correct. However, a view has been expressed by myself and others that fairness is paramount in sport. To think that such a statement could be misrepresented in the way that many contributors have done is, frankly, beyond belief.
people its a charity festival!!! i nor as far as i am aware any of the letchworth players have any issue with basford what so ever so why is it letchworth are getting a name for having an issue with basford!!! they won good on them, they deserved to win more in my oppinion than any of the other teams, they are worthy winners that put the effort in so can everyone stop this pathetic arguments or 'debates' with basford just coz they win!! and atleast have the balls to put ur name instead of anonymous coz that really is childish.
ReplyDeletesasha.
Guys, this is all getting out of hand; we at Letchworth have NEVER, to the best of my knowledge, 'bad-mouthed' Basford or any other team, and we have NEVER complained at losing a game fairly and squarely to any other team - losing is part of the game and we always accept that. We dseserved to come 4th on Sunday - that is not the issue in debate and never was - the questions that were raised have nothing to do with our position as a club or indeed our particular relationship with any other club.
ReplyDeleteAll that was said was that because the scores of the tournament had not been released, we did not understand the results. That is all. We were just wondering how Basford obtained the extra point that put them above Westcliffe, was it the bonus point that they obtained against Hertford? Because if so then how can that be considered fair, seeing that Westcliffe did not have the opportunity to obtain that point themselves.
If that is so, no one is denying that the bonus point in that game was fairly won. What is an issue is that the bonus point was allowed to stand after Hertford withdrew from the competition. Westcliffe never got the chance to get the bonus point that won the tournament for Basford. I'm not saying that it is Basfords fault that Hertford withdrew or anything stupid like that - it was very sporting of them to lend them players in the first place (speaking for Letchworth incidently, normally we are happy to lend players and have borrowed in the past but this time we didnt feel that we had enough to lend people whilst still letting us play properly ourselves) but once it became clear that Hertford could not carry on then all the teams remaining in the competition should have been put on a level and equal footing, to allow that bonus point to stand gave Basford, in my opinion, an unfair advantage.
Here at Letchworth not only have we never complained or written anything 'abusive' about Basford, but in fact I have never heard an ill word spoken about them! Either on the pitch or off it, from either players or management. The discussion on this blog earlier in the year about Basford's blog header was designed to be a thought-provoking discussion about what is the most important thing for people in sport (everybody has a different opinion and are welcome to it), not a Basford-condemning witch hunt!
I have always been proud to say that I attempt to be friendly with absolutely everyone I play against and will always remain that way.
A perfectly genuine, innocent question was raised on this blog about the way the tournament was run and it has provoked some incredibly and unbelievably immature resposnses.
I am so disappointed with some of my fellow comment-makers that I cannot put it into words - this blog is supposed to be a forum for discussion, to insinuate that anyone at Letchworth would use it to mount a hate-campaign against Basford or any other team is both ridiculous and insulting. I have never had any problem with Basford and until this point have always enjoyed the discussions on this blog. I am deeply upset that these childish responses to what was an innocent question raised, not by John incidently, but by Mike Alcock, and the unanswered questions over the way that the tournament ended has tainted my memory of what was an otherwise fantastic day of rugby.
I repeat, I had and still have absolutely nothing against the Basford team, but I would ask that the scores of the various matches on Sunday are realeased to the public so that our questions can be answered!
I stand absolutely, completely and utterly behind the comments made by both my teammates and the management of this club. And defend absolutely the right to question any element of what could be percieved to be inappropriate decision making on the part of ANY tournament organisers.
Had the roles of Basford and Westcliffe been reversed and Basford had lost by an what could have been an unfairly awarded bonus point we would have been just as vehement in our response and eagerness to discuss the issue.
I have always enjoyed playing against Basford, who are a fantastic team, and hope that I will have the opportunity to enjoy many more matches against them in the future. They always play cleanly and fairly and with a lot of passion. I would also be incredibly disappointed if the comments and discussions posted on this blog led to any ill feeling between the teams and it would be a great shame if, as has been suggested by another person, this disagreement were to lead to any disruption in our planned U15 fixtures.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed. I think just about everything that can usefully be said has now been said and I am now closing this article to further comments.
ReplyDelete