Cambridge University Pythons -v- Essex Blades 14-15 Programme

Road To The Playoffs

University of Essex

Sunday 15th February

KO 13:00

Cambridge University Pythons - v - Essex Blades

-v-

CREDITS EDITOR

Steve Guy

ASSISTANT EDITORS

Tom Carr, Martin Steers, Jack Tavener

PHOTOGRAPHY

Garry Neesam (glnphotography.com) Chris Moore, Jack Tavener, Robert Guy

DESIGN

Tom Carr & Jack Tavener

info@pythons.org.uk

/CambridgePythons

@CUPythonsAFC

/CambridgePythons

CAMBRIDGE PYTHONS SEASON 2014/15 With the support of

Welcome

from the President We’ve taken a lot of pleasure in producing our gameday programmes for home matches this season and hope you’ve been enjoying reading them, whether pitchside at Coldham’s Common or online. With two away fixtures to finish up the season, we couldn’t possibly leave you not knowing what’s going on with the team, so have decided to push ourselves that bit further and try a new format - a digital only, e-programme!

We’re really growing our presence across a range of outlets, and hopefully you are keeping up with us on the web and social media. All links in this programme are hyperlinked and should take you straight to our pages., so whether you want to see previous Pythons programmes, watch some of our highlight and trickshot videos or tweet the team, it’s all there for you and we’d love for you to get in touch.

Your support through likes, follows and subscriptions all directly help the team through publicity and sponsorship - your support means an awful lot to us, so thank you.

So, onto the game ahead. Away at Essex and for the first time leading our conference after our shutout win against UEA last week. Details of that and a look ahead all to come, so for now I will leave you with the current standings and what all Light Blue supporters like to see (aside from a Varsity victory)... Cambridge topping the table! #GOPYTHONS

Jack Tavener

President, Cambridge University Pythons

BUCS Tier 1 Eastern Conference - Current Standings Cambridge Pythons UEA Pirates Kent Falcons Oxford Brookes Panthers Oxford Lancers Essex Blades Anglia Ruskin Rhinos Canterbury Chargers

P 5 5 5 5 4 4 6 4

W 4 4 4 3 2 1 1 0

L 1 1 1 2 2 3 5 4

GD 130 55 68 36 52 -50 -173 -118

Pts 8 8 8 6 4 2 2 0

The Season So Far

Last week saw the Pythons take on top of the conference UEA Pirates in a hard fought match at Coldham’s Common. Both teams entered the match with a strong defensive record, only 19 points conceded in total between the two during the current campaign. With the league standings incredibly tight at the top, this match was the crucial fixture in securing a route to the playoffs for either side. A loss would certainly take post-season out of their hands, more probably ending any chances of getting there. The Pirates came in as favourites in the press, though we knew we were being underestimated and with good execution and team play could shock our oppostion.

Both defenses laid down markers in the early stages, initially securing several drives of excellent field position for the Pythons offense but with the Pirates standing firm to keep them out, despit some good runs and completed passes. As the game progressed Cambridge began to move the ball more freely whilst the Pirates continued to be shutdown. A QB sneak from Joe Yarwood opened the scoring, followed by a brilliant defensive play later in the half, that saw the ball stripped and into the hands of Ed Cozens, who ran the ball all the way back for a touchdown. With things delicately poised at 12-0 coming into the second half, UEA were forced to take risks to get back into the game. The Pythons began to pick off interceptions, leading to a Jaason Geerts TD catch late in the 3rd quarter. As more players were switched out in the 4th, the Pirates began to move the ball more than they had all game, but were closed down on the only drive within 30 yards of the endzone, finishing the game with a Pythons shutout that has taken them top of the Eastern Conference and a direct route to the playoffs with wins at Essex and Kent.

PYTHONS RESULTS 2014/15 Oxford Brookes (H) L 0-10 Canterbury (A) W 58-0 Oxford (H) W 16-0 ARU (H) W 48-0 UEA (H) W 18-0

REMAINING PYTHONS FIXTURES Kent (A) February 22nd PLAYOFF WEEKENDS 8th March - Semi-Finals 22nd March - Finals

Gameday Roster Pythons

# Name 1 Darren HARVEY 3 Stephen FORD 4 Tom SOUTHERN 5 Ella NICOL-HARPER 7 Alex BUTCHER 8 Joe YARWOOD 9 Sam ROBERTS 10 Jaason GEERTS 11 Daniel BROCK 12 Richard HOBBS 13 Tom ZHANG 14 Akhilesh MULAY 15 Cam RAE 16 Rob BREWSTER 17 Harry RICHER 20 Joe MOORE 21 James DIGBY 25 Ned BRANSDEN 29 Sam THOMPSON 32 Jack TAVENER 42 Guy PETERS 43 Daniil MIROSHNICHENKO 46 Jon MAILES 50 Ram SARUJAN 52 Tom CARR 54 Oscar MACLEAN 55 Ed COZENS 56 Samir HOSEIN

College Darwin 58 Selwyn 60 Robinson 68 Trinity Hall 75 Trinity 77 Selwyn 78 Selwyn 80 Sidney Sussex 87 Churchill 89 Robinson St John’s Queens’ Robinson Homerton Gonville & Caius Sidney Sussex St Catharine’s Girton St John’s Pembroke Queens’ St Catharine’s St Catharine’s Corpus Christi I.C.E. Homerton Homerton Corpus Christi

Glenn HE Mike ARMSTRONG Richard ALLOWAY Tim ALLEN Niklas EK Constantine CAPSAKIS James STRATFORD Basil WOODS Toshan WICKRAMANAYAKE Adam BARLOW Kinjal DAVE Andrew SABA Dennis MENDOZA

St Edmund’s Magdalene St Catharine’s St John’s Jesus Girton Peterhouse Robinson Trinity Gonville & Caius Instep Instep Instep

Head Coach Julian FULLER Offensive Coordinator Len SCOTT Defensive Coordinator Gary VILLIERS Special Teams Coach Craig DRIVER Lineman Coach Dan HARRISS Assistant Coach Chris WHITLEY Assistant Coach Alistair GEMPF Team Assistant Dave WILLIAMS Team Assistant Luke SCHUMACHER Gameday Manager Peter BAKER Co-General Manager Co-General Manager

Steve GUY Martin STEERS

Gameday Roster Blades

Name Chukwudi ABANI Mahad ABDULLE Abiola ADESEYE Daniel ALABI Aji AWOEIN Raul BARCLAY Matt BARKER Luke BYRNE Tom CHAPMAN Jack CROWTHER Jack DADDS Charles DAY Adam ENTICKNAP Pedro GOWANS Luke HALLETT Derrick HOPPE Craig HUDSON

Jon IVES Kevin JAKOBSON Dan JAY Taylor KENNETT Joe MATTEWS Stephen MONGER Milan MUKHAWALA Casy ORAS Priyank PATEL Michael PREMPEH Ashley RENNALLS Ben RIGBY Ummair SALEEM Toberto SANHA Jason TSHIMBALANGA Johnny WAMALA Yan Wu

The Opposition gameday history

This will be the fourth meeting between Essex and Cambridge. The Pythons currently lead the series 2-1. Here is a brief recap of the three prior games (home team listed first)…

Essex 31 – 6 Cambridge, December 3, 2011 A very experienced and well-drilled Blades team swept aside the Pythons in our first season back playing football for 13 years. A young and very inexperienced Pythons team was limited to one first down all afternoon by a smothering Essex defensive unit. Essex had 200 rushing yards compared to 21 for Cambridge. Essex also gained 166 passing yards (tellingly the three leading tacklers for the Pythons on the day were defensive backs: Andrew White with 7, Joe Bonneau with 6 and Guy Peters with 5). The Pythons only completed one pass all day – but it was for a 25 yard touchdown (Joe Yarwood connecting with Steve Kinnersley) but it came in the 4th quarter with Essex already leading 31-0. A hard afternoon for the Pythons.

Essex 6 – 16 Cambridge, November 25, 2012 A hard defensive battle saw the Pythons come away with the spoils on a bitterly cold and crisp November day. Things looked bleak for the Pythons early on, with Essex running back Chris Palmer scoring on a 47 yard run with only the third play of the game. Undeterred, the Pythons struck back later in the 1st quarter with an 11 yard touchdown pass from Yarwood to Lajos ‘Pookie’ Torok (Connor ‘Moose’ Rooney ran in a successful 2 point conversion). That was the last offensive scoring in the game. In the second quarter Pythons defensive lineman Matt Hawkins intercepted Essex QB Andrew Evans as he threw out of his own endzone and fell forward for the TD. (Rooney again with the 2 point run). The workhorse (or rather ‘workmoose’) the Pythons rode the rest of the way to victory during a hard, attritional and scoreless second half was the Canadian running back Rooney who contributed a gutsy 102 yards on the ground from 24 carries to go with his 4 points to cement MVP laurels.

Cambridge 62 – 0 Essex, February 9, 2014 A Pythons team that would eventually finish the regular season ranked #13 in the nation flattened an Essex team ravaged by the graduation of a raft of experienced players. Cambridge come flying out of the traps, Joe Moore running 60 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the game. Essex never recover from this painful blow, the Pythons race to a 20-0 lead before the start of the second quarter (including another Joe Moore TD, this one a 55 yard run). The Pythons keep turning the screw with a 38-0 lead at the half (the second quarter featuring three more Pythons TDs including a 59 yard run by Brad Idzik). The third quarter features more of the same as Jaason Geerts grabs a 9 yard TD pass from that man Yarwood and Joe Moore completes his TD hat trick with a 30 yard run. 50-0 to the Pythons going into the 4th.

Jonty Richardson scored his third TD of the game in the 4th quarter before Pythons defensive lineman Brendan Loftus has the signature play not only of this game but of the entire Pythons season with a strip-sack of the Essex quarterback and scooping the fumble and taking it 20 yards of the final TD of the game. Beautiful.

The Opposition 2013/14 in pictures

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