*MVP - Camilla Longden*

*Dramatis Personae: *

Janman (c)
Camilla
Kenny
James Smith
Matt
Sam T
Nick O
Louis

*Prologue*

Draves' Journal, November 3rd, 2012:
Peanut butter and jelly this morning, knife spread on burnt bagel. Homerton are afraid of us, we beat them at mini.

The streets are extended leaf piles and the piles are full of autumn and when the piles finally burst open all the children will laugh.

The accumulated foliage of all their leafy endeavours will foam up about their waists and all the Homertonians and Eagles will look up and shout 'Walk round!'

And they'll look round and whisper 'no'.

*Chapter One.*

Cold. That's what I remember about Saturday morning. It was bloody cold. Nonetheless Eagles turned out a decent squad and warmed up ready to take on the Homertonian horde. Unfortunately, our women were thin on the ground and it was up to Camilla to match at least four Homertonian girls. Due to the loose mixed rule of College League this hurt us quite a bit; as soon as we scored and gained some momentum we were forced to play a point with 6vs7 making gains hard to come by on the scoreboard. There was also an inordinate amount of sun for November, making playing one way kind of like trying to shoot while flashbanged on CoD.

Nevertheless, we traded with Homerton for the first few points, throwing up an effective zone when they had a numbers advantage and keeping our wits about us to score on O. Homerton then threw up a zone of their own which proved quite effective in shutting down our offence. It involved a very loose wall which spread wide and made upfield shots difficult, so despite our slick handler movement we weren't gaining many yards. Homerton were also bidding hard on errything, teaching us the hard way to attack the disc or lose it. This is something which keeps coming up to bite us in the arse Eagles: sometimes it's important to ignore your instinct which wants to gain yards and set yourselves for the disc and really attack it. By that I mean running onto the disc rather than waiting for it to come to you. There were far too many run through Ds for Homerton, which apart from turning us over have a huge psychological impact on both teams (positive for them, demoralising for us).

We managed to stop them taking half however, getting back on the scoreboard with the help of a timeout before Homerton made it 7-3. We came out strong
after half, swiftly making it 7-4 before Homerton replied for 8-4. In a couple of stunning plays we got two on the trot, largely thanks to Sam and Nick's confident handling, and Kenny and Dan giving them reliable upfield options. There was also some excellent D in this period, with freshers James and Matt inexperienced in zone D but coping well and Camilla running herself ragged despite having to ironman with blisters. Props definitely go to her as Homerton's girls were no slouches but she contained them well for the most part. Time had gone by this point though, so we were in sudden death as it were and unfortunately Homerton camped outside our endzone and got a lucky quick pass to their girl. Ah well, at least DCU beat them at mini the night before to win the tourney.

An interesting game of Jenga and then European Ninja ensued before someone shouted spoons and a mass migration occurred.

Spirit-wise Homerton weren't great tbh. Certainly not at their worst - no one got rugby tackled as far as I'm aware - but their rules knowledge was poor given how long some of them had been playing and certain Homertonians were far too willing to hijack a call even if their perspective wasn't the best or requested. Room for improvement methinks.