It’s fair to say the 2025/26 season has had a mixed start for the 1s. A start which in many ways encapsulates grassroots rugby.

A run of form gave us an outside shot of promotion to Surrey 3 last season but the last couple of matches gave us a glimpse of the future. With the Fijian cohort now unavailable, we took heavy losses.

Although we finished mid-table, the natural turnover of players that occurs each summer only made the Fijian exodus more keenly felt. Therefore, the leadership came to the realisation that Surrey 4 would be a challenge.

Luckily there was space in Surrey 5 to accommodate another team and we are grateful to the league for welcoming us.

And so to mid-September and our first match. Except it wasn’t as our opponents had a diary mix-up and asked us to postpone. No worries, we have a cup game the following week. Which the oppo couldn’t get a team for. And then it’s a week off for the World Cup Final (go on, the Red Roses!).

Suddenly it’s early October and we haven’t played a competitive match since mid-April.

Which you’d hope would leave us chomping at the bit to pull on the boots again. But that player turnover bit hard so as it was 13 of us made the trip to Merton.

Nevertheless, we knew that there was a lot of talent in those 13 players. Watching the opposition warmup, it was clear that they had a couple of big buggers but we felt we could hold our own – not least as Storm Amy would make any kicks, lineouts or long passes more of a lottery.

Our aim had to be to fight for each other and stop Merton from exploiting their extra men. We also had to use the wind in the first half.

After 15 minutes we had our first scrum and by that time Quins were already 26-0 up. We scored tries through the middle. We scored tries out on the wing. But just as importantly, we were defending with real intensity.

And that was frustrating Merton which led to the turning point. In what had become a niggly game, their 8’s frustration boiled over and he let the ref know what he thought. A straight red and we were now 13v14.

Which ironically seemed to cause us to switch off whilst galvanising Merton who were able to run in a try just before half time.

26-7. Would that be enough given the wind? Would the extra work mean we tired in the second half? Could we re-find the intensity of the first 20 minutes?

Four more tries in the second half showed what we could do – the last a bust through the line on halfway by Chris which he gave him a near-untouched run-in. With 70 minutes already played, hands were shaken and we all agreed that a beer sounded more fun.

DoD: Josh. The score may officially be 5-50 but that kick look suspiciously like a miss from bang in front
MoM: Wiggins. Whether it’s Ozempic, exercise and healthy living, or starvation, it’s worked. A great performance for the whole match; snaffling loose ball, making bullocking runs and capping it all with his first ever Quins try.