Desperados just fall short in the dust bowl!

This week saw the first game of the Desperados 23/24 campaign against their old friendly rivals Canvey Vets. In the 35 degrees of the Indian Summer the game kicked off on the Central Park dust bowl!
As with previous encounters between these 2 teams it was an even contest. After a nervous 5 minutes Canvey managed to slip past a couple of tackles and get the first score. The D’s then spent the majority of the next half in the Canveys 22 with help of Lumpy’s boot. The D’s had many chances with some great runs from Maudsley, Rawlinson and Davies however they just couldn’t convert the pressure to points. The end of the first half unfortunately saw 2 more breakaway tries for the visitors. After an extensive water break rehydrating, the 2nd half kicked off and Canvey managed another try. The hosts however were undeterred and kept the pressure on this time by punching up the middle. Feeley and Humphries made some inroads and a great team effort saw scrum half Knowles (in his kindly donated kit from the newly retired Jamie Yates) finally get the Desperados on the score card! From then on it was all Dagenham. Paul Grint had a try held up and Ian Fergie was taken out just short of the whitewash! Pretty much the final play of the game saw Dagenham add to their tally with another well worked team try (the scorer being a Canvey player who had kindly pulled on a Dagenham shirt for the last few minutes).
The Desperados were unlucky not to add to their total but a good game was had none-the-less with Canvey playing in great spirits as always. Afterwards copious amounts of ale were consumed watching the first team game and England. Surely a few sore heads (and sore bodies) the following morning!

Squad:
Hunt, Sharples, Tank, Newson, Thomson, Davies, Humphries, C. Rawlinson, Taz, Lumpy, Playle, Feeley, Grint, Maudsley, Knowlden, Curly, Emilio, Ibby, Knowles, I.Fergie, Cox, Wilson

Tries:
Knowles x 1
Canvey Player x 1