With 16 players on the team sheet the Newbury Ladies knew that as soon as the whistle blew at the start of the game they were League Champions for the second successive season. This did not however mean that we were going to hold back and not go for a decent score. We also lent a player to Barnes to enable us to play 12 a side.

The first half went off with a bang with Newbury quickly opening the scoring with the first of three trys from Hannah “Tom” Ward who was still riding high after her legendary drop goal that sealed the season in our match against Bracknell.

The drive forward continued and it wasn’t long before the Blues scored a second once again at the hands of Hannah Ward.

Barnes then got a lucky break when one of their back line exploited the extra space on the wing and out paced the defence to touch down for a converted try.

Newbury regrouped and it wasn’t long before they were able to once again cross the line, this time through the hand of our prop/winger Donna Gardiner who tapped and went from a 5 m penalty driving through the defensive line for her first score of the season which was converted by Ashley Hunter.

Again Newbury showed the forward momentum that had become routine throughout the season and were regularly breaking the defensive line but the Barnes defence held firm and they soon managed to breakthrough. Then with form that echoed that of last season, our winger Emma Button who was playing for Barnes in the first half with only 15m between herself and the try line and a gap in the defence shipped the ball back into the hands of Newbury so we could again start building our attack.

There were to be two further trys in the half, one for each of the teams. The Newbury score coming from debutant Alex Chung who had a brilliant game in both attack and defence but it was Barnes however who rounded off the half with a converted score beneath the posts.

The second half got under way with Emma Button swapping back to a Newbury shirt and Caroline Simm going over to help Barnes.

Newbury returned to playing the patient game with a build up of phases before going wide to the backs to cross the gain line for a score. Having switched from the centre back to playing in the more familiar setting of the forwards, another of our hat-trick heroes for the day Megan Horwood broke through the defence to cross the line.

It was then one of our backs, Claire Humpreys who was able to score before she unfortunately had to leave the pitch after suffering an injury to her knee.

Newbury were really starting to take control now with 2 more trys from Megan, the final score of her hat-trick from Hannah Ward and an excellent finish from Emma Button.

Barnes were not quite finished and with the Newbury defence caught out, they were able produce a third converted try of the match.

The final score was Newbury Ladies 56 – Barnes 21.

Newbury were deserving winners and rounded their league winning season off with maximum points from the fixture.

Back and forward of the match went to Megan Horwood and Hannah Ward respectively but Newbury were pleased to have welcomed two new players Alex Chung and Amy Crossland to the team and be able to recognise all the girls for their hard work throughout the season.