On Sunday 12 January Beckenham U15 Girls blew away the cobwebs in a hard-fought local Derby against Old Alleynians, a club we know very well from joining forces for training, cup games and tours. OAs sportingly loaned four players to join Beckenham's nine which allowed for a competitive fixture for the girls, but always makes continuity more challenging.

After a good kick off and some fierce tackles from Beckenham - particularly Mia - OAs broke free and scored. This score was against the run of the play for the first half, and the following 20 minutes was spent with Beckenham camped in the opponent's 22, making the most of the strong winds in our favour. However despite creating multiple opportunities to score, Beckenham never quite made it to the line, through a combination of strong defence from the OA girls and a few handling errors. Just as the coaching team were preparing for the half-time talk, OAs broke out again to score twice in quick succession just before the clock turned red. Beckenham found themselves 0-19 down at the whistle, despite having had a good two-thirds of possession in the first half.

The message at half-time focused on the need to get an early score as play resumed; however with a different set of OA girls now joining Beckenham, there were bound to be a few gaps in the defence as the girls got used to a different team and OAs made the most of that to score early. Despite a challenging game, the girls kept up their fighting spirit and stood firm, with a really committed defence and some strong break-out runs, conceding only one more score right at the very end of the game. Beckenham were unfortunate not to have crossed the whitewash, but need to give credit to a tight OAs defensive effort. The final score of 0-31, as so often, not fully reflective of the performance of the girls and the closeness of the game.

A committed performance from all, but new recruit Ellis stood out on the wing in only her third game, making several tackles and rucking well, her growing confidence and level of improvement really showing in her also making good judgement calls on her positioning and knowing when to move forwards to cut down the attacker's space.

Lots to work on as always, but the girls are ready for the next challenge when we welcome Tunbridge Wells to Balmoral Avenue next weekend.