Rugby League
Challenge Cup 2nd Round
Saturday 27th January 2024
Kick Off 17.00
Hammersmith Hills Hoists 32 West Bowling 10, attendance 95
@ Chiswick R.U.F.C.
Don Mason Drive
Chiswick
London
W4 2SH
No Admission or Programme.
I arrived here about 50 minutes before kick off. Chiswick R.U.F.C.’s reserve team were in the last few minutes of their match, hence my game having a 5 o’clock start. I was surprised there was no admission charge or even a programme produced. Perhaps they couldn’t be bothered. It was a pretty poor turnout for such a big game, with about twenty of the crowd coming down from Yorkshire with the visitors. I had seen Hammersmith play a home game back in June 2011, when they played at Twyford Avenue Sports Ground, in Acton, West London, but they now appear to have relocated here to Chiswick. It’s a better facility, but I’m not really a fan of watching rugby on a synthetic surface.
Hammersmith Hills Hoists were formed in 2008 by Australian expats and play in the Southern Conference League, where they are the reigning champions, whilst West Bowling are in the National Conference League Premier Division. It was an excellent game, although it was spoiled by the constant fighting that occurred at far too regular intervals and it was hard to keep up with who was being sent off and who was just getting a ten minute sin bin, such was the frequency of mass brawls breaking out. It certainly didn’t help matters with the two kits being so similar either as it was hard to tell exactly who was hitting who! The game finished with yet another punch up in the centre circle and the Referee was brandishing red and yellow cards to both teams, but no idea who was getting what. Sadly, no match report has been posted anywhere by either side, which doesn’t help matters.
West Bowling had a man sent off after just twelve minutes and soon trailed 12-0. Hammersmith had a man sin binned after half an hour and within a minute West Bowling scored a try to pull it back to 12-4, but a converted try for Hammersmith saw them lead 18-4 by halftime. An early try, which was converted, saw West Bowling reduce the arrears to 18-10, but that was to be their last points of the day. Hammersmith ran in three more tries, but only converted one of them, to comfortably lead 32-10 and surprisingly there were no more points added in the final nineteen minutes.
