Cobham celebrated their promotion to London 1 South in style with final day of the season blitz defeating Winchester in an eight try romp in front of a packed home crowd.
Hosting top four side Winchester, who Cobham last played on the first day of the season, Coach Pope knew this fixture would prove a fitting end to a very successful season.
The visitors had only relented from their playoff quest the previous week and a much changed Cobham side had been beaten at Warlingham.
With the home crowd warmed up well by the Cobham Bluebells' Under 17 match and a sell out fianl day lunch, the teams took to the field, Cobham were led out by retiring stalwart Arran Cowell who bowed out after 147 caps and many fond memories.
With the weather holding off the game would be played at a high tempo pace that Cobham had developed this term.
Tries in the first half from Doug Rodman,Josh Brown and a brace from Max Macdonald arguably put the game to bed as a contest. With halfbacks Ollie Weir and Robbie Kennard pulling the strings, Cobham's ascendancy would be unrelenting. A a further two tries from the unstoppable Max Macdonald early in the second half elevated him to top try scorer, pipping full back Clements and the prolific prop Brown.
A further try from Matt Goddard put the gloss on a win that summed up the Cobham season; pacy, dynamic and reliant on teamwork.
With the game over the team and coaching staff deservedly celebrated at an awards dinner
Players player of the year would be awarded to back row Dave Baker who's physicality and commitment stood out.
Player of the year was taken by the electric James Clements who could only be considered the most dangerous back in the league.
Young Player was taken by Adrian Van Der Ploeg who not only guided the U21 side to a third consecutive Surrey title, but built a reputation in the senior ranks well above his years.
The supporters chose Prop Josh Brown for their award whose 12 tries were exceptional.
Reflecting on both the game and the awards dinner, Director of rugby Steve Pope said....
“ It was a real pleasure to host Andy and his Winchester team on the last day of the season at home and we knew we would need to be on our metal to compete with the strong and organised Winchester side, for me it was a great way to measure how we have developed over the season having not seen the Winchester team since our very first league match of the season way back in September , where we just scraped home by a single point after a very closely fought contest with a very different team.
I was very pleased with the boys positive response this week to a poor performance last weekend at Warlingham and it was great to see the boys playing today with a good balance of pace, physicality and control.
Having a busy playing schedule today with the girls game and the other senior men’s sides at home really helped to get the atmosphere and anticipation of a big club day. We are trying to build on a number of other initiatives we are looking at as a club and the day was also planned as our senior end of season bash and player awards dinner.
I’m hopeful that we will also be able to keep the every young Mr Arran Cowell involved in club matters in some shape or form in the future after he announced today was his last 1st XV appearance, I sincerely hope we are able to persuade him to stay involved is some way?
It has been a good season for the club – and huge credit must go to everyone involved both on and off of the field, from the players working so very hard and fully buying in to a clearly very different approach to training and playing, to the many volunteers and club people that have supported the players myself and the coaching and management team. Far too many individual thank you’s for me to mention now.
(coaching & management team, club executive, Cobham Curve team, Robbie as club captain and all those that have worn the shirt with real commitment this season across all of the teams.) - I hope to get around to everyone individually over the next few days.
I look forwards to the awards this evening and more than a few drinks and some dancing and to share with everyone their achievements this season, 21’s to seniors the players have really put down some strong foundations for us to build on over the summer and in to next season.
As the new boy and my first season I have hopefully begun to understand the make up of the club and the group of players and structures we currently have in place – so things have been kept simple on purpose and we will be looking to build on this solid season, fundamentally we will be looking to continue to create and nurture an environment and a club culture , which if we can get right will be the corner stone of the club moving forwards. Of course this will take time to get right but we have made a good start in 201-2016 season.
I would like to personally thank everyone who has helped this year and look forwards to getting stuck in to the pre –season, we would also like to open a warm welcome to anyone looking to join the rugby club at any level.
Director of Rugby Steve Pope
P.s. Stumps, we couldn’t have done it without you patching up the walking wounded … there you go I said it out loud …..
