So here we are, after a long and tricky route to the final, a first round bye, then two teams crying off in the quarter and the semi final, Harlequins were set to play for the first piece of silverware in at least 7 years, and the first piece any of the current team would have lifted in the jersey.

The County were taking this match seriously, providing 3 referees, two very highly qualified refs running the line, they were also miked up with the ref, never thought I would play in a match with this much organisation, just need Dave Love to sort out a TMO for the next big game.

Quins did seem a bit more determined and focused at the beginning than we normally see, except for Ash Armel-Close who was still in the changing rooms as everyone else was on the pitch ready to go.

The match started in pretty much perfect fashion, George Jaques floated a lovely kick to start the match, Chiswick thinking it was going straight into touch, let it bounce just in bounds, Quins then managed to steal the lineout, a couple of short balls, saw some space out wide, which George Jaques executed to touch down after a couple of minutes, he converted his own score to leave Quins leading 7-0.

It was fairly obvious early on that Chiswick were out gunned pretty much all over the pitch with good yardage being made by all, Mitch came within inches of scoring his first try for the club, running a lovely support line, only to be stripped of the ball as he was about to touch down, unlucky mate, it will come. The resulting scrum was smashed by Quins, until it was wheeled around I would say 200o the put in was reversed, Dave Love picked up from the back of the scrum and took two defenders with him, Ed Barrett hung out a little wider, receiving a pass from Paul Hibbert burrowed his way in to score his fourth of the season, George added the extras, 14-0.

Now as usual a couple days in between and a lot of beer after the match, I remember who scored and how, but not the order so bear with me.

Tom Samuel having not scored for the club before, and has been anxious to do so, wasn’t confident with Ash inside him that he would get many chances, but Ash with a fantastic assist proved us all wrong, beating the first defender then drawing 2 more, Ash slotted a grubber through onto which Tom ran onto and put under the posts for his first try for Quins, congratulations Tom.

Luke Nugent who also has yet to score his debut try came agonisingly close, being brought up just short of the line, and if we can all spare a thought to his fiancée Kait who will have to put up with Luke moaning about how close he got until he actually scores. It wasn’t in vain though as Dave Love got himself over the line for his fourth of the season.

So after scoring his first try in a Quins shirt, Tom Samuel made is a short wait for his second, in what was probably the easiest try in history, Chiswick tried to fly hack a ball from within their own 22, only to see it fall straight into the hands of Tom who could run in unopposed from about 20m, so 0 tries in 2 season, 2 in one game, let’s hope this rate of scoring carries on.

The Cup was pretty much secured now, but Quins didn’t lose focus, with a penalty advantage in our own half, Paul Hibbert saw nobody at home for their full back, so hit a long box kick, the resulting foot race was won typically by JC who got on the score sheet.

The final act of the first half was very similar to the opening act, Quins playing on the left side of the pitch sucked in a lot of the back line, the ball went wide with Luke Povey touching down with ease to add to his impressive scoring ratio.
After half time, I think Quins lost a little focus, as Chiswick’s little winger danced passed a couple of defenders to score Chiswick’s first points.

Quins immediately responded, winning a turnover from the restart, they went wide quickly and George Jaques added to his early score. The referee wanting to keep the game civil started to be very lenient on Chiswick and extra harsh on Quins which did upset our rhythm a lot, as any momentum was stopped by being penalised at the breakdown.

One was round this was for Ash Armel-Close to run 70m beating several defenders with some good stepping and smashing people in his own unique way, to score what was one of the best individual tries of the season.

Quins then turned to the bench to add some fresh legs, Jake Daniels coming into full back, Jake Walker coming onto the wing, and Chris Addis coming onto the other wing. The fresh legs and minds were evident very early on with Jake Daniels making yards from the off, and putting Jake Walker through (after a juggle) to score his first of two.

Chiswick scored twice more through some pretty dodgy tackling, though the referee did say to be in the bar afterwards that 14 of their 19 points were very generous, so let’s not be too harsh on ourselves for conceding.

After a brief rest on the bench George Jaques came back on to replace and pretty shattered Ash, I think with either his first or second touch he beat 3 players to complete his hat trick.

The final try came from Jake Walker who eerily predicted as much before the game, George with a textbook draw and pass put Jake over the line for his brace.

Final score 76 – 19

12 tries in all with George scoring 8 conversions.

Just a couple of points Ash missed a conversion in front of the posts, both wide and under the posts, (sorry Ash had to get that in there).

Secondly Paul Strachan ended his Quins career in style; he has been posted to Blackpool to defend the beaches from overweight northerners I think, we all wish you good luck Paul and thank you for helping us win the cup.

Next week is a big weekend again; we have London French in the long anticipated Middlesex Vase match which keeps getting pushed back because of the weather.

Also James Welsh is looking to get the second team out for the first time in 3 years, this is a huge step for the club, as we look to build for a long term future, so we need people as training and to make themselves available for the weekend.

Congratulations lads, we got something to show for all our hard work.