As part of Hertfordshire's preparations for this season's County Championship, the County will host Crawshay's Welsh XV on Sunday, 27th April in what should be a testing warm up match. The match will also honour the memory of Vivian Jenkins, the former Welsh International, who lived his later years in Harpenden. Vivian was a Life Member of Hertfordshire RFU and was also President of Crawshay's Welsh XV at the time of his death. The match will be played at Old Albanian RFC, kick off 2.30 pm.
Last Monday (14th April) Hertfordshire hosted Henley Hawks in a warm up match at Hoe Lane, Hertford. The home side put in a very encouraging performance, although they lost by one point to an injury time penalty - 12 - 13. Their forwards put in a particularly good display against a strong Henley side that included the Herts skipper, Dave Archer, in their back row.
A try by flanker Craig Bailey (Hemel Hempstead), converted by Richard Gregg (Old Albanian) gave Herts an early lead, but Henley replied with a try 10 min before half time. Half way through the second half, full back Peter Fermse (Hemel Hempstead) increased the home leads with a try. However, Henley cut the lead to two points with a try and then elected to kick a penalty in injury time to win the game by one point.
The selectors hope that this match and the Crawshay's match, plus regular training sessions, will produce a good squad for the County Championship Shield campaign which starts on May 3rd with an away fixture against Eastern Counties @ West Norfolk RFC. The following two Saturdays, Herts will entertain Cornwall and Oxfordshire at Hertford and Old Albanian respectively.
Herts Team v Henley Hawks: Peter Fermse (Hemel Hempstead); Ian Crompton (Stevenage Town), Jon Child (Welwyn), Paul Welch (Hertford), Mark Evans (Old Albanian); Richard Gregg (Old Albanian), Toby Prescott (Tring); Ryan Long (Tabard), Matt Cross (Loughborough Coll), Neil Bamber (Stevenage Town), Adam Amos (Stevenage Town), Peter Coke (Hertford), Phil Pearson (Stevenage Town), Craig Bailey (Hemel Hempstead), Billy Johnson (Hertford)
Replacements (all used): Tony Giddings (St Albans), Luke Hardwicke (Hertford)
