Men vs Oxford - 01/12/2019

Oxford 14 - 24 BLWP

A wise man once said that away days are for the boys. And on a cold and dark Sunday afternoon eight boys wanted to prove the core eight were unbeatable. They had to face their first opponent in the BUCS Cup, Oxford 2s, a formidable opponent with many more subs than the boys had. The game had twists and turns, highs and lows, lots and lots of kick outs, but these boys became men today.

The first quarter started off with a blistering sprint from Liam, which allowed the boys to secure and early 4-0 lead. While Oxford tried their best to claw back some goals the boys were able to maintain a four goal lead, with Marco scoring 4, Renos scoring 2 and Jono also scoring 2, which ended the first quarter 8-4 in favour of the boys.

The second quarter is where the fun began. For Josh this would be a rough five minutes of play. Marco and Jono began by putting in another few easy goals, and although Oxford managed to slip a few past us, the boys managed to grow their lead to 12-6 before disaster/stupidity struck. Three quick major fouls by Josh and he was out, he would have to watch his team play the second half of the game without him, but what he didn’t know is the boys were unstoppable and didn’t need him.

Again Liam won the swim off for the third quarter, and with more phenomenal shooting from both Marco and Jono we were able to grow our lead to 18-8 before again disaster struck! With two quick major fouls by Renos he was wrapped and couldn’t play anymore. Barts were down to just six boys in the pool, they would have to play a man down for the following quarter and a half. After a close end to the third quarter the boys had an eight goal lead, which they would have to try and maintain in the final quarter. But knowing these boys they wouldn’t be satisfied to simply play defense, they were ready to send a message to other teams. It seemed as if Marco was having the best game of his life as he scored another four goals bringing his total up to 13 (apparently all you have to do to make him play well is make sure Toria isn’t there). And Liam added two more to his total, closing out an epic game 24-14 in favour of the core eight.

A massive thank you goes to every boy who came all the way to Oxford to play, it is an absolute pleasure to have people this dedicated to the club turn up to away matches regardless of what else is happening in their lives. Special thanks goes to Tadpole Kevin, who put in a massive shift locking down players on the defence as well as setting up some great goals. This monumental win means the boys are through to the second round of the BUCS Cup, which no doubt means they will have another away day to assert their dominance over another team. This match was for the boys, by the boys. Thank you and good ebening