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Colchester gearing up for the season’s exciting climax
Doug Boulton27 Feb 2023 - 15:52
By Edward Marriage
Hopefully refreshed from a week’s break, Colchester’s first team return to action this weekend, aiming to end the league season on a high note, and with half an eye on the new cup competition which follows.
Thanks to a quirk of the fixture list - together with a re-arranged game at Hertford after the original fixture was frozen off – The Blacks finish their campaign with three successive away matches, the first of which is arguably the stiffest test of the season.
Westcombe Park have led the way in Regional 1 South East from the start, and have been red-hot favourites for many months to take the only available promotion slot.
But the Kent side have had a bit of a wobble of late, losing four matches since the turn of the year, their latest reverse coming at Tunbridge Wells on Saturday. A win at their neighbours would have sealed the championship. As it is they still need two points from their remaining two games to be absolutely sure.
As it happens, third-placed Colchester are the only side who can mathematically pip WestcombePark (second-placed Shelford only have two matches remaining so can’t catch them). For that to happen Colchester would have to win all their remaining matches – trips to Harpenden and Hertford follow the trip to Kent – ideally with bonus points and hope Westcombe Park fail to secure any points from their home matches against Colchester and Sidcup.
Not surprisingly, no-one at Raven Park is realistically thinking about promotion. As head coach Craig Burrows has been saying all season, it’s about improving, week-by-week and match-by-match.
Whatever happens in these final three league matches, the season will not be over in mid-March as the team will then embark on the all-new Papa Johns Community Cup, with a chance to play in a final at Twickenham.
Opponents, fixtures and dates are still to be established, but we do know that final league positions will determine which competition teams enter (eg Cup, Plate or Bowl) so the next three weeks will be significant.
Teams will go into a pool of four teams, all from the same level but from other parts of the country. If Colchester finish second in the league, the current RFU model has us in a group with two teams from the south-west of England (possibly Cambourne and Brixham) and one from the south central division (possibly Camberley or Havant).
If Colchester finished third in the league, their pool opponents are likely to be Westcombe Park (yes them again), Wimbledon and Chew Valley, based near Bristol.
The dates pencilled in for the fixtures are March 25 and April 1, 8 and 15. The winners of the four pools then contest semi-finals, with the final played at HQ over the April 29-May 1 bank holiday weekend.
Clearly there are many hoops to jump through before the details are finalised, but with every team guaranteed at least one home match, Raven Park has not seen the last first team match this season!
Thanks to a quirk of the fixture list - together with a re-arranged game at Hertford after the original fixture was frozen off – The Blacks finish their campaign with three successive away matches, the first of which is arguably the stiffest test of the season.
Westcombe Park have led the way in Regional 1 South East from the start, and have been red-hot favourites for many months to take the only available promotion slot.
But the Kent side have had a bit of a wobble of late, losing four matches since the turn of the year, their latest reverse coming at Tunbridge Wells on Saturday. A win at their neighbours would have sealed the championship. As it is they still need two points from their remaining two games to be absolutely sure.
As it happens, third-placed Colchester are the only side who can mathematically pip WestcombePark (second-placed Shelford only have two matches remaining so can’t catch them). For that to happen Colchester would have to win all their remaining matches – trips to Harpenden and Hertford follow the trip to Kent – ideally with bonus points and hope Westcombe Park fail to secure any points from their home matches against Colchester and Sidcup.
Not surprisingly, no-one at Raven Park is realistically thinking about promotion. As head coach Craig Burrows has been saying all season, it’s about improving, week-by-week and match-by-match.
Whatever happens in these final three league matches, the season will not be over in mid-March as the team will then embark on the all-new Papa Johns Community Cup, with a chance to play in a final at Twickenham.
Opponents, fixtures and dates are still to be established, but we do know that final league positions will determine which competition teams enter (eg Cup, Plate or Bowl) so the next three weeks will be significant.
Teams will go into a pool of four teams, all from the same level but from other parts of the country. If Colchester finish second in the league, the current RFU model has us in a group with two teams from the south-west of England (possibly Cambourne and Brixham) and one from the south central division (possibly Camberley or Havant).
If Colchester finished third in the league, their pool opponents are likely to be Westcombe Park (yes them again), Wimbledon and Chew Valley, based near Bristol.
The dates pencilled in for the fixtures are March 25 and April 1, 8 and 15. The winners of the four pools then contest semi-finals, with the final played at HQ over the April 29-May 1 bank holiday weekend.
Clearly there are many hoops to jump through before the details are finalised, but with every team guaranteed at least one home match, Raven Park has not seen the last first team match this season!
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