Dronfield Rugby Club's Bucks and Greys seal a well deserved victory

Dronfield Bucks and Greys, a mixture of more senior members of the club and exuberant younger players were at home for their first match of the New Year.

Their opponents, in this friendly fixture, were Maltby Development XV from near Rotherham In their last fixture before Christmas the Bucks and Greys had lost to Hallamshire Development XV 39-12 and so were hoping for an improvement in their performance.

Included in their squad for today's match was Jon 'Goose' White now in his 42nd season as a Dronfield player -an incredible achievement. Hoping that there weren't any late withdrawals due to the unfavourable weather conditions or strained muscles, the home side on paper looked to have got the correct balance between experience and youth. It soon became obvious that the game would be a close affair Both teams found themselves one minute on the attack and then soon after being called upon to defend. Scores came at either end of the pitch as the lead frequently changed hands.

As the game went into the final period of play Dronfield led 28-26 but with Maltby having backs quite capable of running the length of the field to score what would be a winning try, it was imperative that Dronfield retain possession and that play remained in Maltby's 22. At this pont Dronfield's pack pressurised a Maltby player into a loose pass out which gave the home side the opportunity to move the ball to Tony Hutton to seal victory.

Other try scorers had been Peter Walker Owen Evans John Kilmartin and a Penalty Try. Man of the match was Ewan Croft mastering the game from fly half and having an impreesive 100% success rate with his place kickingThe game proved to many of the more mature players that they still have the ability to play a full game and that their fitness levels are better that they first thought - even after the Christmas and New Year Festivities.

With the Ist XV winning their game against Matlock it was an excellent start to the New Year for the Club and once more there was a feast of home points scored Between the 1st XV and the Bucks and Greys they had amassed 78 points in total. 2025 looks promising !!.