St Albans Centurions

The Rugby League Masters bandwagon rolled into St Albans in Sunday when Medway Dragons took on St Albans Masters at Cotlandswick. This was the first time this variant of the sport had been played in St Albans and because to the low impact nature of the game it attracted many players who had never played rugby league before and liked the idea a game suited for over 35s, with limited competitive edge. The day started with St Albans Centurions hosting a barbeque as a thanks you for all their junior volunteers and it was great to see these guys stick around to watch the old boys play.

St Albans Masters were guided round the park by Shane Rampling and was well supported by Ken Edwards and Shane Hodges, but despite a spited effort the home side couldn’t stop a well drilled Medway side who ran in some excellent tries. Graham Clarke scored a brace for St Albans. The spirit of the game was summed up when after an unplanned big collision in the tackle involving two props, both players got up and immediately shook hands !

Photo Gallery

South London Storm 6 -V- 60 St Albans Centurions

The kick off was put back to 3pm due to heavy traffic on the M25 so the Cents did not get their normal warm up. This showed in the first 10 minutes when the Storm peppered the Cents line but some defiant defending kept them out. Then on the 10th minute from a tap on the Cents 20 metre line the forwards made excellent metres with 3 drives. Then quick hands down the line put centre Aaron Brown through the gap and David Kramer converted to get the scoreboard moving. The game became stale with both teams making basic errors. Then on the 30th minute the Cents were awarded a penalty for offside and from the tap Joe Shaw broke the Storms defence and his fellow forward Adam Kambouris was on his shoulder and he finished the move with a try. Straight from the kick off centre Rudie van der Merwe made 25 metres and a quick play the ball David Kramer broke the defence to race over to score. On the half time whistle the Storm finally broke the Cents defence and scored a try which was converted. 14 – 6 to Cents at half time.

This week saw several rounds of Master's style rugby league.

First we will visit the midweek fixture:

Tuesday 20th July marked an historic day in the development of rugby league in London and the South, when a London select side took on the touring Australians at Master Rugby League. Master Rugby League, developed in Australia, is a variant of the sport designed for over 35s, whereby players wear different coloured shorts dependent on their age, the colour of shorts defining the intensity of tackling allowed. Gold shorts are for over 60s and the Australian side had several players in their 80s !

The concept of Masters is very new to the London area with several clubs, including St Albans Centurions looking to start up sides, the emphasis very much being on inclusion and fun. Selected as part of this landmark fixture were Centurions founder members Ken Edwards ad Gary Tetlow along with one of the clubs first ever players Steve Kenworthy (whose son now players for the clubs u13s). The London side notably included Sky Sports rugby league officionado and former GB hooker Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson.

The game itself was played in blistering hot conditions at Medway Barracks and both sides deserve credit for the quality of rugby league and fine sportsmanship on show. The Aussies recoded a 5 try to nil victory, Ken taking the Man of the Match award for the London select team and Steve being sin binned for a rather robust tackle on a gold shorted Aussie !

Starting off with the Centurions Junior summer events, and followed by a belated match report from the U13's play-off game.

Staines U13's v Cents U13's

HT Score 30 - 8
FT Score 48 - 20

Tries from Will Curtis x 3 & Callum Porter x 1 + conrversions x 2 Nikolas Gaspar

Team-

1.Charlie Dollard
2.Chris Seaborne
3. Joseph Harrison
4.Callum Porter
5.Kelvin Owusu
6. Will Curtis
7.Jarred Kenworthy
8.Micah Passman
9.Jack Mason
10.Declan Allen
11.Richard Mills
12.John Liu
13.Mikolas Gaspar
14.Harrison Camp
15. Kasey Burroiughs-Thompson

Cents started well on what was a very hot day with a try in the first 5 minutes from Will Curtis coming from a well worked move to score in the corner.

Staines hit back with 6 tries on the bounce all pretty much coming from our mistakes.
The Second half was a lot more of an even contest with tries being exchanged and some excellent ball work from Nikolas Gaspar to send in Will Curtins for a further try.

In the end Stained ran out deserved winners.
Cents MOM of the mtach Nikolas Gaspar for excellent defensive work and tremendous conversions from our tries, 2 from 2 kicks.

This end Cents U13's season, good work lads on a hard fought season.

Hammersmith Hill Hoists 16 -V- 56 St Albans Centurions

Saturday the Cents travelled to West London to play the Hoist who are the only team to beat the Cents this season. Hammersmith put pressure on the Cents from the kick off. This did not help by the Cents giving away 5 penalties in 6 minutes. But it was the Cents who opened the scoring from a penalty for interference at play the ball the Cents finally got away from their half due to strong running from the forwards. On the 5th tackle a gap