Olney ladies finally had a home game at the weekend hosting Derby Vipers. With a strong squad of 14 (who needs 15) the ladies started off well. With Olney having the majority of possession and after some good strong runs from forwards Jen Micklewright and Silvia Arpana the ball managed to find its way to the hands of the one and only Jennie Miles , who crashed over the line to score and then convert Olney’s first try putting them 7-0 up. This seemed to wake up the ladies from Derby with their centre making some strong hard runs and after a few missed tackles she managed to get the ball up in to their half. Strong tackles from new Pink Lady Hannah Collier and Fleur Shakespeare initially prevented Derby from scoring but not for long and over they went to make the score Olney 7 Derby 5.

It wasn’t long before Olney were back at it again. With quick passing through the hands the ball found its way to captain fantastic Jen Micklewright who smashed through 3 players to ground the ball, Miles narrowly missing the conversion. However tired legs and a few missed tackles allowed Derby to hit back to score 3 more tries before half time, converting two and leaving Olney trailing 24-12 at the break.
Olney started the 2nd half as they started the first, with strong running again by Arpana who made good ground to get the ladies back up the pitch along with great support play by Lauren Holt and Amanda Kinder. Credit to the Derby side as they held Olney for a while with some great defence from their forwards, but after one too many high tackles the Derby number 5 saw yellow and the numbers were even. Olney took advantage at the next scrum awarded 5 metres from the Derby line, Dominating the scrum with only 7 for the whole match, on this occasion number 8 Hannah Breen picked up and crashed over the line to bring her side to within a score of the opposition. Miles nailed a conversion that most men would be proud of.

Derby hit back again with a strong attack (how these are at the bottom of the league I don’t know) but again great covering tackling by the Olney backs kept them from scoring. With 5 minutes to go Olney worked their way back up the pitch and great work from the forwards led to Fleur Shakesphere seemingly grounding the ball over the line only to be denied by the referee. Derby managed to steal the ball back and clear their lines, leading to a nail biting finish. Great running by full back Scarlett Donne brought the ball back up field to then find the hands of almost every lady wearing the Cerise and French grey before Arpano finished off by grounding the ball! It wasn’t over yet, with the conversion to come and emotions running high (you’d think it was the World Cup final) Miles stepped up and coolly kicked a difficult conversion to put the home side in the lead 26-25. With one minute to go the ladies knew all they had to do was hold on to that ball to get their first win of the season. They maintained possession from the re-start and after several phases Miles was able to smash the ball from the pitch to give the ladies their first win of the season. Congratulations to both sides for an entertaining game.

Final score Olney Ladies 26 Derby Vipers 24.

Next Sunday the ladies travel to Coalville, hoping to maintain their good form