It was that time of year again to pack up the picnic’s, fold away chairs and sun cream and head down to the annual Bournemouth Tournament. Because of the date of the tournament quite a few of the squad had booked holidays so the U11s went with a smaller squad, with 7 out of the 14 in their first season of rugby.

Ivels’ first game was against Eastleigh Pirates who they beat 4 tries to nil with some great running from Harry McHugh, Archie Mitchell, Henry Bowditch and Aidan Smith with Elliot Berryman and Myles Haislden the powerhouses in the forwards.

The second game was against New Milton who taught the inexperienced Ivel side how to play rugby. They moved ball from hand to hand and scored some very free flowing tries, but the Ivel side never gave in and battled to the end.

The third game was against Havant which was a much closer affair. Both sides tried to power up the middle of the park and this paid off for the Havant side as they scored two tries after some poor tackling by Ivel. However Ivel came close on a few occasions but were stopped just sort of the line.

Ivels last game was against Kings which they had to win to progress onto the next stage of the competition. It was another close game with Kings coming out winners by three tries to nil but again Ivel came close but just couldn’t put their chances away.

The Ivel team played remarkably well considering that it was the first tournament and first season playing rugby for half of the squad.

Ivel squad

Elliot Berryman, Myles Haislden, Sam Nourse, Ewan Berkley, Aaron Bridtore, Jon Hayes, Harry McHugh, Aidan Smith, Zac Wilters, Archie Mitchell, Ian Walsingham, Dan Potter, George Cameron, henry Bowditch, Mike Smith