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Ivel  17  vs  Minety  10  -  Home  Southern Counties South
 
 
Click pictures for Ivel try video clips

Playing in some of the worst weather so far this season Ivel took the lead through an un-converted Joe Covu try in the first five minutes. Not only were Minety stunned, the home support was ecstatic. Ivel kept on attacking. A gap was spotted by Man of the Match Sam Armitstead who grabbed the opportunity to touch down. Sam then converted his own score. The rest of the half was spent with Ivel repelling Minety attacks and trying to break back. Ivel lost flanker Louis Jones who sprained his ankle. He was replaced by George Wilson, a second row. Minety managed to score a try through their scrum-half towards the end of the half. At the turn-around it was 12-5.

The second half began and Ivel had the wind to their backs. Unfortunately Ivel captain Kris Shore succumbed to his injured ribs and was replaced in the back row by prop “Dinger” Bell. After some end to end action Ivel managed to score another try through second row Dave Clegg. The conversion was missed. Ivel could not sit back and enjoy their lead as Minety didn’t let them. The visitors managed to score an un-converted second try. Tension then mounted as Ivel spent the last five minutes on their own line stemming the flow of Minety attacks. The final whistle, Ivel had won!

Playing Committee Chairman John Dennett said: “We’ve played all the teams in the top half of the league so far but today showed the real potential of the team. We won’t get over excited because this is not an easy league but we can look forward to the next match with renewed confidence. Well done to the lads, they did the club proud today.”   
 
 
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Minety 21  vs  Ivel  8     Saturday 24th January 2009
 
 
Click picture for try video clip
 
Pictures in section below from Dave Fowler
 
 

Ivel made the long journey to Minety on Saturday hoping to carry on their league form and come away with a win, however, that was not to be the case.  Ivel started the game playing up a steep slope into the low winter sun on a pitch that can only be described as a very boggy cow field being horizontally challenged in many directions, the near billiard table surface suffers only slight underfoot slipperiness......Ivel did start the brighter though with Sam Armitstead playing at 10 directing play well, it seemed however that every time they got into their opponents 22 they gave a penalty to relieve the pressure. 

The first points of the afternoon came from Minety on their first real attack, the ball was moved to the centres where their 12 ran from deep, broke some weak tackles and scored near the posts.  Ivel however replied immediately with a penalty from Sam Armitstead after sustained pressure.  It looked like Ivel would close out the half only one score adrift and they could really apply some pressure in the second utilising the slope, however that was not to be, Minety struck twice in 5 minutes, the first was from their scrum half who barged his way over from a 5 metre scrum, the second came from a high up and under which under the conditions was almost impossible to take cleanly and the bouncing ball was eventually touched down for a try.
 
The second half saw Ivel immediately under pressure with a series of scrums on their 5 metre line, to their credit though they showed great spirit to hold firm and not concede any points.  Minety defended well for long periods until a kick through saw their full back fumble allowing Tom Armitstead to pick up and score what was to be a consolation try.  Man of the match for Ivel was hooker Troy Fowler who was called in late but had his best game to date.
 
Ivel coach Owen Salmon commented, 'Minety played the conditions better than us today, it's obvious that they use their experience of playing on this pitch to good effect.  I was encouraged by our second half defensive effort, we were under pressure but didn't concede any points, hopefully we can take that into next weeks home game against Wootton Bassett'.