What a glorious day for our first Surrey B Festival. With 40 miles to cover, a convoy of 4 cars left Frant Road at 8:15am and arrived in good time. Thundering rain was forecast but it held off until we got back to Thornton Heath.

Coaches Femi Oresanya, Chris McCarthy and Morris Roberts with the under 9s/10s

SCRFC u9/u10 were testing themselves against some of the best teams in Surrey and were ready to give it their best shot. Although we had entered an u10 competition, we had a team of ten u10 players (Romarni Richards, Alia McCarthy, Rico Hall, Eamonn Persaud, Charlie Baldwin, Ethan Barrett, Romeo Brown, Nathan Addy-Walker, Dieguo Rua and Lewis Roberts) and two u9 players (Ethan Goulbourne and Conor Oresanya).

With very little to choose from between the sides the team were unlucky to lose their first and second games to Wimbledon (2 tries to nil) and Barnes (3 tries to 1). Romarni scored our try against Barnes. A few missed tackles and some dubious refereeing decisions were all that separated us from our opponents.

Knowing that we wouldn’t make it to the play offs, there was nothing to play for but pride. However, they saved their best till last against Guildfordians, playing with such vigour and intensity, making a number of tackles preventing Guildfordians from getting close to our try line.

With the last play of the game, Romarni broke out of defence, took the ball upfield, was caught but Conor and Eamonn were in support to recycle the ball. Charlie took the ball on from the base of the ruck, passed it to Dieguo who slipped it to Romeo to score the match winning try in the corner. The referee blew thereafter. A great win 1 try to nil and the perfect way to end the season!

They gained great experience and held their own and will be back next season.