Chiswick win Hendon Tournament

Local rugby team triumph in seven-a-side competition

Chiswick entered the Hendon 7's for the first time since the days of the Old Meadonians and there was a feeling in the squad that the club could win the competition for the first time in its history. The day itself was grey and wet, however when the first games kicked off the rain stopped and thankfully stayed off through out the day.

Chiswick’s first group game was against an unknown quantity in Vauxhall Motors, a team that Chiswick would go on to meet again in the final. This game was a tight affair with both teams struggling to adapt to the 7's style after a long hard season of 15's. The result was a 14-14 draw, but from that point on Chiswick never looked back. a comfortable win followed against Kilburn Cosmos, 26 - 7 and a resounding 57 - 7 victory over Worth Old Boys saw Chiswick through to the semi finals.

There they met League adversaries (and this season’s nemesis) Finchley and there was a strong feeling in the squad that "we owed them one". Chiswick Played a scintillating first 7 minutes and raced to a 26 nil half time lead. With the game as good as won, tired Chiswick heads lost focus and allowed a youthful and spirited Finchley side a way back into the game, however the lead proved to be just enough and Chiswick held on for a 26-17 victory and a crack at the final. Vauxhall were again the opposition as they had qualified as best runners up and after a solid win against the impressive Eastbourne Stags in their semi the rematch was on.

A very tired Chiswick side mustered up all the energy they could for one last 14-minute match and started in exactly the same way as they had in their semi final, blowing the opposition away in defence and attack to storm to a 26-nil half time lead. An intelligent and calming team talk at half time by coach Andy Barrington, settled the nerves and a calculated performance in the second half saw Chiswick run out winners buy, 40 points to 10. What a performance and what a day. The squad then collected the clubs first silverware for 10 years.

Squad; Keith Luckman, Lewis Hammond, Marc Jones, Lee Miller, Neil Piggot,
Mike Sampson, Matt Vinden, Elliot Pickering, Graham Robbings and Ben Hinze.

Special thanks go to Jo Allardice who looked after the squad superbly through out the day and kept a lot of tired legs ticking over. Coach Andy Barrington, who's knowledge of the sevens game and management of the squad was of great importance to the final result. Coach Graham Cousar for his midweek 7s specific training sessions and also to those few supporters who braved the weather on the sidelines.

April 25, 2006