Bearing in mind that not long ago Shelford were two leagues above Colchester, the home side put on a brave display despite the visitors using the superior experience to eventually run out winners at a cold and windy Mill Road.

Not long after Shelford’s kick off the home side’s centre Damien Brambley hoisted a high kick, followed and retrieved the ball, offloaded to wing Owen Herbert who sped over for a quick converted try putting the Blacks 7-0 ahead. This score stung Shelford into action and their big forwards worked their way up the pitch. Given a penalty they opted for a scrum, won it and No.8 Aki Lea powered over for a converted try to level the score 7-7.

There followed 15 minutes of intense rugby evenly contested. Shelford’s inside centre Warwick Anderson frequently broke through tackles but Colchester’s defence held up, often relieved by fly half David Higgins’ long kicks out of defence. The deadlock was broken, however, when the visitors won a scrum 5 metres out and moved the ball quickly left then right for prop James Armitage to exploit a gap and score a try, which fly half Josh Simmons converted giving Shelford a 7-14 lead.

Straight from the restart Shelford came back again and their backs put Simmons over for a well-executed try extending their lead to 7-21. Colchester made the half time score more respectable when the Shelford backs fumbled a quick line out and full back Ed Parry pounced on the loose ball and ran 30 metres to score a fine converted try. At the interval flanker Dan Whiteman had to leave the field due to illness and was replaced by Ben Murphy who put in a good display despite playing out of position. Soon afterwards hooker Dan Brennan had to leave the field with a recurring injury with Joe Mcmillan taking his place and Jerone Awesu coming off the bench to prop.

It was honours even for the next half hour, although Simmons came close with a penalty kick. The game breaking score came when Shelford stretched the blacks’ defence enabling centre Dwayne Lese to score an unconverted try. Now the score was 14-26 and the home side reshuffled their half backs with Matt Wadling on at scrum half and Brett Cutbush moving to No.10. Both players made inroads into the opposition but the visitors’ back row remained vigilant and there was no way through.

Referee Dave Conway awarded several penalties both ways in the last 10 minutes but neither side could capitalise on them and his final whistle gave Shelford a hard fought victory 14-26. Despite this defeat, Colchester remain 9th and are learning to compete with teams much higher in this league.