It’s been building for a while and on Saturday at Bushy Park the 1st XV finally let the handbrake off. We dominated all aspects of the game; from scrum to lineout (well, most of the lineouts), Ruck to maul, territory and possession, it was a runaway Antlers afternoon.

The match was beautifully choreographed by player coach Paul ‘The Leopard’ Manley, who was pulling the strings at fly-half. He was back to his purring best and notched up 4 tries, one of which was an individual effort, containing more dummies, side-steps, swerves, skips and jumps than a Michael Jackson routine and to which every Ellingham player got a very close look at, without actually ever laying a finger on him. The only negative press occurred when Paul was setting up the teams ninth and final try of the afternoon when he tweaked a hamstring and limped off.

As good as Paul was, it was a real team effort with Glenn Boyling kicking all 9 conversions and there was also tries from Dom Stone (x2), Matt Poole (x2) and Callum Johnston who finished the try fest off. Other standout performances came from lock Elliot Fraser and scrum half James Frankenberger.

This was a great all round performance from all 18 players and with Purley John Fisher now within our sights a move up the league is the target in the coming weeks.

Next week we travel to high flyers Eastleigh, whose season has recently faltered. With confidence high in the Antlers camp, this should be another interesting game.