East Retford 7's 2006
On August 20th Dronfield RUFC took a number of players to the East Retford RUFC annual 7's tournament at the Ordsall Road ground. Always a good warm up for the approaching season some of Dronfield's strong runners and good ball handlers put together a young team with promise.
As well as the 1st VII some Dronfield players with the help of East Retford and others, made up an Invitational Barbarians team which took the field captained by the well rounded and skilled Andy File.
The 1st VII started very strongly against a Barnsley 2nd VII side with some big hitters and fast wingers, however Dronfield were a sufficient match for this with Kieran Pickles running clever lines and creating space for winger Chris Sorsby. Good link up work between Chris Rodgers and Eugene Louw lead to a number of well worked tries with Dronfield easy winners 29-14.
The Barbarians side with Dronfield's Andy File, John Kilmartin and Colin Smith started their tournament against Barnsley's 1st VII and played extremely well against a very strong side unfortunately losing by a few tries. However, points were gained in there second game against East Retford 2nds, with good performances all round.
Dronfield 1st VII's next and final group game was against a Paviors 1st VII from Midlands 2, although Dronfield faired well with solid performances from Matt Green, Tim and Jack Parker, it proved too large a difference in playing level.
With the 1st VII progressing into the Cup competition and the Barbarians side looking strong in the plate competition things were looking good. Unfortunately a long wait between games left a poorly prepared Dronfield side looking lethargic when they played Market Rasen in the quarter finals, well behind at half time Dronfield improved slightly in the second half but not enough, only scoring a single try as Matt Thomas went over in the corner after a good short pass from Ash Guth.
It was only fitting after a long day that Andy led his team into the Plate final against a youthful Lincoln side, it what was a very close and hard fought game with both teams showing both skill and pace. With only seconds on the clock Lincoln missed a penalty drop goal attempt giving the Invitational Barbarians the game and the Plate, 22-21.
