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JED-FOREST R.F.C |
Riverside Park |
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Jedburgh |
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TD8 6UE |
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01835 862232 |
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2007-08 News 12th May Jed lose Border League Final Another tense Border League final in front of anther big crowd at Poynder park saw us lose 19-9 to Selkirk who had a remarkable season winning the Border League, The Kings of The 7s and gaining promotion to Premier Division 1. Seb Trotter kicked all 9 points. _________________________________ 10th May Jed beaten in Home 7s Semi Final Another Semi final defeat. This time to eventual winners Watsonians who were the class act of the day. They beat Hawick in the final. ____________________________________ 6th May Jed beat Melrose to Reach BL Final A massive 17-10 win for Jed in front of a big home crowd. Melrose had been winning the Scottish cup 3 days earlier and suffered bad injuries during the game but tries from Robert Ferguson and Gary Hill gave us a well deserved victory after a brilliant 1st half performance. _______________________________________ 4th May Earlston 7s Semi Final Jed reached the Semi's in front of the usual big traveling support but without Clark Laidlaw we were outclassed by runners up Selkirk. Watsonians won. _________________________________________ 28th Apr Jed Reach Langholm Final Jed reached the final of the Langholm 7s at a sodden Milntown on Saturday. The first round saw us take an early 12 - 0 half time lead against Berwick but they fought back and only a last minute try saw us through to face Kelso in the next round. This was to be a very tough game. We were level at full time and had to slog it out for nearly 7 more minutes to see the ever improving Tweedsiders off. The Semi Final was against Peebles who had beaten a weak Heriots squad and Langholm earlier in the day. Peebles seemed to be tired and had drafted in a couple of Langholm boys to fill their squad back up after injuries and we beat them fairly comfortably by 19 points to 5. As expected we had to face the Kooga Wailers in the Final who had won this tournament for the last 3 years as the Newcastle Falcons and came through the earlier rounds without conceding a point. It looked as if this might continue as we got off to a shocking start letting them stroll away to a 19 - 0 lead. To our credit we did score the next 2 tries and it looked as if we might make a game of it but the start had been to much and the Wailers scored twice more before we got a late consolation to make the final score 31 - 17. Sunday (today) saw us in action at the Peebles 7s but it was short lived. We faced Peebles in the first round and just never showed any form at all and the home side won 31 - 0. Credit to Peebles though as they went on to reach the final but they came up against defending champions Watsonians who had their full squad with them and they ran out easy 47 - 17 winners to keep the trophy. The SDU 7s was back at Riverside on Saturday and Jed Reached the Semi Final. A very scrappy preliminary round win over Peebles set us up against Selkirk who had looked quick against Eyemouth earlier but that was a false dawn as we beat them well with Tom Elliot, Greg Walker and Pip Renwick controlling the game. We faced the Hawick 2nds in the Semi but they were just too quick for us. For the record Hawick YM won the tournament. Jed Thistle eventually got their hands on Silver wear this season when they won the Selkirk Youth Club 7s _____________________________________________ 25th Apr Border League Decider Set for May 6th A date has finally been agreed for the BSPC Border League pool A decider against Melrose at Riverside. After prolonged negotiations, Tuesday the 6th of May seems the only practical date. This will give us a really hectic couple of weeks but we will get on with it and give our all. The final is to be played on Wednesday the 14th. _________________________________________________ 20th Apr Heriots prove to be a step to far Jed went up to Heriots full of hope and buoyed by a large traveling support that had filled 2 supporters busses and umpteen car loads but it was to be a step to far and perhaps a realisation that the draw had been kind this year for once, allowing us to get this far. We started well paying with the bitterly cold wind but an early missed penalty was perhaps an omen. We had all the early play with Roy McFarlane looking especially dangerous. An outrageous late High tackle on Robert Hogg saw Cammy Bruce sin binned but we could not break through and the loss of Roy with a broken collar bone after 20 minutes from another high tackle really restricted our attack and we had nothing to show for our efforts. Heriots cruelly scored 2 converted tries on their only real pressure and went into half time 14 - 0 up. Another 2 tries after half time really killed the game but Jed were rewarded with a try after great hand off by Gary Hill allowed him to break and feed Jamie McCraw for an easy run in, Donald Greive converted. 3 more Heriots tries followed and it looked like they might break 50 but great credit to our boys for sticking in and Robert Hogg scored under the posts, Donald converted to make the final score 47 -14. At the end of the day, Heriots were just to big and athletic for us at that took a toll near the end where Heriots were really dominating the breakdown. We now have the Border League to chase and their is a possibility that we will play Melrose on Thursday night but that will be announced on Monday night or early Tuesday. We were beaten in the 1st round of both 7s tournaments this weekend but that is no surprise. The 2nds played at Hawick and 7 Thistle laddies filled the squad at Berwick. We have a good draw at Langholm on Saturday so perhaps we can get a good run going before our tournament in May. Remember all the 7s info is on the 7s page. __________________________________________ 13th Apr Jed reach Melrose Quarter Final Jed once again punched way above their weight yesterday by reaching the last eight of the 125th running of the Melrose 7s. A close early game against local rivals Hawick saw us hang on for a 20 - 17 win for the chance to take on the much touted Chinese Agricultural Collage, or in reality the Chinese national squad. 8 of this squad had played in the Hong Kong 7s where they had beaten Scotland in a pool match. With a game under our belt we started strongly and Roy McFarlane twice went over in the corner to give us a 10 - 0 lead. Once china got the ball though they showed some real quality and strolled in for a very well worked try. Maybe it was the weather but after that they just could not cope with our counter rucking and sheer desire to guddle in the mud for every scrappy ball and 2 more tries saw us complete a remarkable 24 - 14 win that every one of the squad should be proud of. After that anything was a bonus especially as we had to play a youthful Leicester Tigers squad featuring 2 of the English national 7s squad. As expected we just could not really cope with their extra power and sheer pace although we did fight back with tries from David Gobby and Donald Grieve to get within 2 scores Leicester ran out 38 - 12 winners. Melrose were best of the Border clubs but looked out on their feet when tacking on Leicester in the second semi final. Maybe Leicester had the same problem of quick turnover but they just did not show for the final and the Scottish Thistles, i.e. Scotland (featuring Greig Laidlaw) got back on track after 2 disastrous IRB tournaments in Hong Kong and Adelaide ran out comfortable 33 - 12 winners. The other scores from the tournament are on the 7s page. The 2nds went on their players day to Dumfries to try and defend the cup but after seeing off Gala 19 - 5 in the first round they ran into a very useful GHA squad who ran out easy winners. ___________________________________ 10th Apr Jed to play Heriots in the Cup Semi Jed will travel up to Goldenacre next Saturday for the Cup Semi Final after Heriots beat Ayr 17 - 13 tonight despite having a man sent off with 10 minutes to go while leading 10 - 8. Look out for news of supporters busses. _____________________________________ 9th Apr 2nds have mixed start to 7s circuit After reaching the Semi Final of the Langholm 7s on Saturday Jed lost out to Melrose in the 1st round of the John Laing 7s on Tuesday night. Jed were leading with 2 minutes to go but conceded 2 late tries. They now go to Dumfries on Saturday to defend the trophy and have their end of season players day. ___________________________________ 8th Apr Away day for Semi Final The draw has been made for the Scottish Hydro Electric semi finals and it has not been kind. Jed are draw to play either Ayr or Heriots away. Ayr and Heriots play on Thursday night after being held up by the wet weather in the west so we will know our opponents after that. Melrose have also been draw away at Watsonians. The Semi's are on Saturday the 19th of April which is also Hawick 7s. ________________________________________ 24th Mar 2nds finish in style Jed 2nds finished their Border Farm Supplies Championship campaign with a last gasp 20 - 19 win against Melrose 2nds on Friday night. Jed were trialing untill a great cross field kick by Chris Richards was gathered by Ryan Miller who scampered in for his second try of the night to seal the win. The game was played in absolutely terrible conditions at Riverside and Jed fielded comeback men Scott Laidlaw and Paul Pringle, who both scored tries. More importantly though they both came through relatively unscathed although Paul did come off after his leg stiffened up during half time. This win gave Jed 3rd place in the League, a fine effort considering the injury problems that the club has had this season. _______________________________________ 23rd Mar Haddington gain a slight advantage Jed went up to Neilson park with a mixed agenda yesterday, yes we went there to compete and tried to win our penultimate league game of the season but we did take the opportunity to rest a couple of players in preparation of our Cup quarter final in a fortnight. We started brightly enough and held an early advantage after a Roy McFarlane try. We had to make an early change when Jamie McCraw had to replace Gobby due to a tight hamstring. Haddington then took the lead in weird circumstances. A penalty kick to go 6 - 5 up looked to bounce off the post into Robert Hogg's hand who looked to counter attack but unbelievably the Linesman had his flag up for a successful kick. Some shocking tacking then allowed Haddington to go 25 - 5 up. Tries either side of half time by Lawrence Patton and Robert Hogg (interception), the latter converted by Donald Grieve got us back into contention at 25 - 17 down. Haddington sealed the game though with 2 late converted tries and look to be a formidable force to overcome in the Cup. Not as disastrous result as it may seem due to our coaches resting Clark, Badger and Bert but Haddington are full of dangers and we will need to be wary of giving away kickable penalties as they only missed 1 yesterday. Their big number eight and their we blonde centre (Calum Mark) look to be the most potent attackers and our tackling will need to improve dramatically if we are to reach the Semi Finals. _____________________________________ 18th Mar Haddington away in the cup. Jed have been draw away at Haddington in the last 8 of the Scottish Hydro Cup. This means that we have to travel up to Neilson Park twice in a fortnight as we face them in a league match on Saturday. Pick of the ties is the all border clash at Mansfield Park between Hawick and Melrose. Full draw below. Haddington v Jed-Forest _________________________________________ 15th Mar Jed fight on to last 8 Jed reached the last 8 of the Scottish Hydro cup with a gutsy 24 - 17 victory against Hamilton at Riverside today. Leading 13 - 0 at half time from tries by Ross Goodfellow and Roy McFarlane plus a Seb Trotter penalty things looked rosey but we are used to making it hard for ourselves. We lost Clark Laidlaw midway through the first half with a knee knock and our leadership and concentration was not right after the break and before we knew it we were 17 - 13 down with 10 minutes to go. Jamie McCraw got us back in front from a try scored out wide. We sealed the game with 2 great kicks. Donald Grieve landed a good penalty and Clark Laidlaw returned to kick a huge drop goal. __________________________________________ 8th Mar Mission accomplished at Langholm Jed set up a winner takes all showdown with Melrose for a place in the Border League final with a comfortable 43 - 20 at Langholm on Thursday night. Jed traveled with a few extra subs thanks to Langholm giving us permission to carry some of the Thistle laddies. In fact Chris Laidlaw got his first start for Jed as Clark was resting a slight niggle and Seb was running late. Chris did a sterling job including kicking 4 touchline conversions during his time on the pitch. Jed were 26 - 8 up at half time and made several changes to the line up. They went further ahead before ex Hawick pro Keith Davidson scored 2 cracking Langholm tries. Jed responded in kind though and ran out comfortable winners. Jed tries came from Robert Hogg 2, Jamie McCraw, Ross Goodfellow, Neil Cook, Martie Hastie and Johnny Field. The Border League pools are on the League page. _____________________________________ 3rd Mar Another Home Cup Tie for Jed Amazingly Jed have been given another home tie against fellow Prem 2 side Hamilton. There are some cracking ties but the standout is former finalists Melrose and Boroughmuir clashing at the Greenyards. These game will be played on Saturday 15th March. Full Scottish Hydo Electric Cup Round 6 Draw Aberdeen GSFP v Hawick _______________________________________ 1st Mar Last 16 of Cup for Jed Jed reached the last 16 of the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup with a stunning 18 - 14 victory against Stirling County yesterday. Stirling Country had the better of things
early on taking advantage of the wind but the Jed defence held until just before
half time. A great break by County's Graham Gilliland sent Graham Lindsay in for
the try converted by Brian Archibald that allowed the visitors to turn leading
7-0. I think the draw for the next round is on Wednesday. ___________________________________ 25th Feb Jed make it hard Jed kept in contention for a place in the Border League final with a scrappy 31 - 27 win over Peebles. Jed went into half time 17 - 14 down but 2 more converted tries and a penalty playing with the wind put us 31 - 17 up with 20 minutes to go and looking comfortable. We made some substitutions and then just went to sleep. Peebles scored 2 more tries which were luckily unconverted and we were left hanging on for the last 5 minutes. We now play Langholm away on Friday the 7th of March and victory there would set up a decider against Melrose which has been penciled in for Friday the 4th of April. _________________________________ 20th Feb Home tie in round 5 Jed have been given the rare luxury of a home tie in the 5th round of the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup but we have been given the very tough task of hosting Premier 1 side Stirling County. The Game is at Riverside on Saturday 1st of March. ___________________________________ 17th Feb Jed Progress to round 5 Jed are through to round 5 of the cup after a 39 - 7 win at Annan. Played on a gluey pitch we were only 10 - 0 up at half time. We stretched that to 39 - 0 before Annan got a late consolation try. Jed tries came from McFarlane 2, McCraw 2, Goodfellow, Patton & Walker, Gary Hill converted 2. The only injury concerns were a cut to Lawrence Patton and a calf strain for Seb Trotter. The 2nds were in action on Friday night up at Peebles. With the scores level at 8 - 8 after 60 minutes Jed's John (Gump) Scott went down with a serious looking back injury when a maul collapsed on him. It was decided to not to move him and call an ambulance. John was taken to hospital but thankfully he is ok but he will be sore for a few days. On a positive note Paul Pringle came through his first game action for over a year unscathed. Jed's points came from a Ryan Miller try and an Ian Chisholm penalty. _______________________________________ 11th Feb Rescheduled Fixtures Saturday sees us traveling to Annan to start our Cup campaign, Annan are sitting 5th in National League Div 1, 2 leagues below us and we will have to be careful. We now have an attractive Border League game against Peebles on the 23rd. Kick off will be 2.30pm and Scotland play Ireland at 5pm. We are going to have a hospitality lunch and anyone interested can book through Eddie Renwick - 863550. The 2nds will be playing Selkirk 2nds as well that day so the clubrooms should be Jumping for the Scotland game on the big screen. ______________________________________ 9th Jan Big Month for Jed-Forest January promises to be a big month for everyone at Riverside. You will all be aware that we play promotion chasing Selkirk on Saturday which promises to be a tough game. We then entertain our closest neighbors, Kelso on the 26th. It goes without saying that these are huge games on the pitch and can help to define all our seasons. We would like to get a run of winning games to give us confidence going into our Cup and Border league games in February. The 2nds also have League games at home on these dates against Melrose and Kelso which can move us up the league as we have a few games in hand. While these games are important on the pitch, they are absolutely vital off the pitch. Border derbies mean much more and gates are always much bigger. These games also attract sponsors for hospitality and we are at near capacity this week and full for the Kelso game. These sponsors generate a great atmosphere in the clubrooms and we are providing music for after the Kelso game. These games will be busy but we would still appreciate your support. ____________________________________________ 4th Nov Armstrong Brothers Resign Jed were dealt a real blow after yesterdays Kelso win when Kevin and Gary Armstrong announced that they were standing down as Jed's coaches with immediate effect due to increased work commitments. This has come as a complete surprise to everyone at Jed and comes at a bad time especially as Team Manager / Assistant Coach, Calum Brown misses next weeks game due to a family Holiday. Roy Laidlaw and Alan Goodfellow will take charge of Saturdays team for the home game against Haddington. __________________________________________ 4th Nov 2 more victories for Jed For the second week running both the 1sts and 2nds recorded victories to move up their leagues. The 1st xv moved up to 5th in the league with a very hard fought 10 - 6 win against our local rivals Kelso, this was also our 1st Border league fixture this season. Neil Cook scored our try, Seb Trotter converted and Gary Hill kicked a penalty. The 2nds also beat local rivals yesterday, when the came back from a 14 - 0 half time deficit to overhaul Gala 2nds and win 20 - 14. Neil Smail. Ian Chisholm and Paul Hill scored tries and Chisholm kicked a drop goal and a conversion. ____________________________________________ 2nd Nov U2 Night pictures
_________________________________ 2nd Nov October 200 club results 1st: £200 - Gordon Hume (FLI) 2nd: £50 - R Kinnear (JST) 3rd = £10 each - J Murdoch, J Ormiston & T Elliot (RFC) ___________________________________ 30th Oct Great pictures John Peters from www.borderpics.co.uk was at Saturdays game and has posted 3 pages of pictures on his website, check them out here. http://www.borderpics.co.uk/20071027sport/index.htm __________________________________________________ 29th Oct Victories for both teams A good weekend for both teams with two victories. The 1sts scored 6 tries in a 41 - 11 win over basement team Hillhead/Jordanhill at Riverside and the 2nds recorded a really good 18 - 10 win away at Melrose, which was even sweeter as the team included several Thistle player who had a week off. More info is on the match report page. ______________________________________________ 28th Oct Clark Laidlaw Interview
An interview with Clark Laidlaw is now on Channel 20 at www.ScottishRugbyRadio.com
and will be on the show this Monday night on Sky Channel 0195 at 9pm.
A Borders Rugby Roundup is on Channel 4 of our Extra Radio Features.
Cllck on Extra Channels to find these. _____________________________________ 16th Sept Crash to Cartha A horror show by Jed yesterday saw us fall to 5th in the league and puts real pressure on our ambitions for the year. We fell 15 - 7 to Cartha Queens Park at home with only a late Ross Goodfellow try as any consolation. The 2nds had a better day beating Berwick 2nds 44 - 7 scoring 8 tries to 1. _________________________________________ 8th Sept Rare Bonus Point Victory A rare thing happened today, Jed 1st XV won a game with a try scoring bonus point. We have won our fair share share of games in recent seasons but we have struggled to gain bonus points to push us up that ladder to Premier one. The bonus point came in a 33 - 3 victory against newly promoted Musselburgh, we were made to wait though. Leading 26 - 3 at half time through tries by Donald Grieve, Ross Goodfellow and Roy MacFarlane we had to wait till nearly 10 minutes from time for Seb Trotter to cross the line to make the bonus point. A good win that takes up to third in the league but it could have been so much better. Jamie McCraw started with a dodgy hamstring and only lasted 20 minutes and he might be out for a couple of weeks. The 2nds slipped up in the second half of their game up at Haddington. The scores were tied at 12 - 12 at half time but we took our eye off the ball and Haddington ran away with a 26 - 12 victory. Jed's tries came from Greg Walker and David Gobby, Tom Elliot added a conversion. _____________________________________ 8th Sept Summer ins and Outs At last I have a full list of this summers
player movement. I wanted to save it for the 1st match programme. I will put a
few of the programme articles on here this season. New Players Gary Holburn
29, prop, who was Captain of Berwick last year. He plays tighthead, which allows
Hendy to concentrate solely on the loosehead side and his games so far have
really strengthened the scrum. He seems equally as happy with ball in hand too
so watch out for some rampages when he gets a head of steam built up. Lawrence Patton
34, another very experienced recruit from Berwick is actually a No 8. He has
answered our calls to play in the 2nd row so far though and is
another reason for the improvement in the scrum. Sebastion Trotter
19, fly half, and the third former Berwick player to make the switch this
summer. Seb has been a revelation since his arrival. He easily slotted into our
7s squad which was cruelly beaten in the last minute of the Kelso 7s final. He
has also started the 15s well and was named as man of the match in last
weekends victory against Stew Mel. He and James Hogg gelled really well last
week and there is real competition for Ross and Clark when they recover from
injury. Greg Walker
19, Full back. Greg is our new Youth development officer and comes from
Musselburgh although he has now moved to Jedburgh. He has come through the age
group pathway system and made his competitive debut for us on the wing last
week. Euan Kelly 31,
2nd Row, has decided to return after a couple of seasons away. Although he his
on holiday at the moment, Euan will travel down from his Livingston home and his
return is very timely. Dean Brown 18,
2nd Row, moves up from the Thistle and has already been on the bench
for the 1st XV. Grant Johnston
18, 2nd Row, also moves up from the Thistle and played a fine part in
last weeks victory over Gala 2nds. Stewart Pearson
21, full back. Stuart is coming from Duns but is injured at the moment. He
was the Duns Reiver this year but got kicked in the shin by a horse and will be
out for a few weeks yet. Players Out: Neil Smail 23,
Full back, is taking a year out to travel Australia. Gary McGarva
28, Fly half, has been forced into retirement due to work commitments Ali Hall 27, 2nd
Row, has decided that he can no longer commit to the travelling from Morpeth and
will play the occasional game for his home-town club. David MacLeod
26, Back Row, has returned to Canada. Steven Hume
38, Prop, has retired. Gary Elder 22,
2nd Row, will miss the whole of this season as he has tendonitis of
his knee and is waiting for an operation. Paul Pringle 28, Back Row, has been running after his horrific leg break and hopes to be back later in the season. ___________________________________________________ 3rd Sept Ladies Day Sold Out Well done Ladies we are sold out. Demand for places has once
again been fantastic and we have to say a huge thank you to you all. ___________________________________________________ 2nd Sept Strong Start to the Season Jed got their season off to a flying start with both teams recording great victories on Saturday. The 1sts beat Stew Mel 19 - 5 at Inverleith and the 2nds beat Gala 2nds 24 - 11 at Riverside. Brief reports are on the match report page. I hope these results give everyone a boost and encourages you all to come down to Riverside on Saturday. It's our annual pensioners lunch and we play newly promoted Musselburgh who beat Hamilton in their opening game. It's also the start of the world cup at the weekend and we will be showing all 3 live games on the big screen. ____________________________________ 30th Aug 200 Club August Result 1st: £200 - STX - A Douglas 2nd: £35 - WJA - J Waldie £35 - WJA - I Anderson £35 - WJA - W Johnstone ______________________________________________________ 30th Aug Sponsorship Update
______________________________________________________________ 26th Aug Pre season positives Jed's pre season ended in positive fashion on Saturday when Edinburgh Accies brought 2 teams to face our 1sts & 2nds in friendlies. With Ali Hall answering an S.O.S due to our 2nd row crisis we fielded a decent looking line up. Ross goodfellow only lasted 20 minutes though with his leg injury flaring up but James Hogg moved into scrum half and still the backs linked well. Scott Laidlaw has been on absolute fire this season and he scored our only try of the 1st half when he roared through the Accies defence after a quickly taken line out. Despite falling 26 - 10 behind we never gave up and 2 Robert Hogg tries got us within 2 points but Accies took a kick at goal late on as the game was fizzling out due to a few late changes. Accies never dominated us through out this game and we looked dangerous on numerous occasions. Seb Trotter looks to have a really good read on the game and has really quick inter passing skills. Robert Hogg looks to be hitting good form and the scrum looks really solid with the introduction of Gary Holburn. The back row trio are gelling and working really well together so hopefully we can avoid any more injuries and we can really look forward to the league campaign next week. The 2nds actually finished as 17 - 5 winners but this was after a 20 minute half time break to wait on the 1sts re arranging their teams a wee bit and Accies only finishing with 13 men. The 1st half had been a really good game despite the 0 - 0 score line with Billy Graham in particularly good form. _____________________________________________ 20th Aug 1st Round defeat at Selkirk Jed stuttered to a 24 - 5 defeat to an
improving Peebles 7 at Selkirk yesterday. With no Ross Goodfellow or Clark
Laidlaw it was always going to be a tough tournament for us but Peebles are a
good side and they went on to push Hawick close in the Semi Final after beating
a weak Watsonians in the 2nd round. For the record Selkirk won their own tournament, beating Hawick 20 - 19 in the final to take a nice lead of the Kings of the Sevens into the spring circuit. After Hamilton and Musselburgh withdrew late last week Marti Hastie and Greg Walker played for a presidents 7. _____________________________________________________ 19th Aug Newcastle all Class Jed hosted the Guinness Premiership side, Newcastle Falcons on Friday night as part of our Family night in a pre season friendly. Despite having several players on world cup duty and another 10 of their best players at Twickenham for the 7s (which they won by the way) they still showed up with a massive looking bunch of players. Despite missing regular half backs Ross Goodfellow and Clark Laidlaw Jed got off to a good start hitting the rucks and mauls hard and controlling several phases of play. We even had the chance to kick a penalty in front of the posts to take a shock lead but decided to kick for touch instead. Unfortunately that seemed to spur the Falcons on and they began to show their class and they scored 5 tries to race to a 33 - 0 half time lead despite some really good defending by us. We held them pretty well in the 2nd half until the last 15 minutes where they ran away to a 62 - 0 final score. A really positive night for the club including the promising debut of our new youth development officer Greg Walker at full back and the front row looking really solid with the arrival of Gary Holburn from Berwick. Scott Laidlaw was his usual tireless self in the back row, he and Donald Greive doing an amazing amount of work. The game was played in the spirit of a true friendly with plenty of really hard hits and smiles afterwards and a big thank you must go to the Newcastle club. There was some bad news after the game however. Ali Hall has decided that he cannot commit himself to the club anymore as he has just started his own business and he can't keep traveling up from Morpeth. Ali has been a tremendous asset to our club from the last few seasons and he will be sorely missed. Everyone From Jed-Forest wishes him well for the future. This has come at a really bad time as we are now really short in the 2nd row. Gary Elder need an operation for tendonitis of his knee and is a long term absentee. Neil Cook is struggling with an ankle injury and Paul Hill has the mumps. _______________________________________________ 12th Aug Jed Reach Kelso Final I really don't know what it is but the Kelso 7s tournament has been a happy hunting ground for us recently (champions 5 times since 1995) and yesterday was no different although we ultimately fell at the final hurdle. A late call of by Clark Laidlaw on Saturday morning with an ankle injury meant that Marty Hastie was called into the squad and young Seb Trotter one of our new recruits from Berwick was thrown in the deep end at stand off. Ironically it was Berwick who we met in the 1st round and Seb found himself playing against his brother Nathen. A fairly comfortable 31 - 0 victory followed with Ross Godfellow, Gary Hill and Seb all looking in great form. We then beat Gala 17 - 12. The score was probably closer than how the match actually as Gala were very reliant on Steven Craig who was so dominant in the Gala team, every body knew it but we could still not contain him and he scored both Gala tries. Next was Melrose who had a very strong looking squad which included the returning Rob Crystie and Scott Ruthven and they had looked very impressive in the first 2 rounds. They had not come up against our super hero yet though. Ross Goodfellow (who looks at his fittest for years) was on absolute fire and he helped us to a surprise 17 - 12 win. The final was against last seasons Kings of the 7s champions Selkirk and a repeat of last years final. Gary Hill took to the field with a calf injury (which looks a lot better today) and it was very evident that he was really struggling. It looked like Selkirk had done their home work as they targeted Seb and our supply line was really cut. It looked a game to far as Selkirk took a 14 -10 lead into the last 2 minutes of the tie but Scott Laidlaw had other ideas and his try looked to have snatched the unlikeliest of victories. Selkirk have really found a fighting spirit on the 7s circuit and they would not give up. 2 minutes into injury time, which was probably justified Frazer Harkness found a gap to break our hearts and send the Selkirk players into ecstasy. Loads of really positive stuff to see. Especially Ross Goodfellow & Gary Hill who looked really fit. The emergence of Seb Trotter and the return to competitive rugby of Donald Grieve after a broken leg. Donald looked like he had never been away and along side Scott Laidlaw got through a massive amount of work. |
