By Ros Holder
December 6 2006

Sunday 3rd December members of the Harlequin Ladies Youth Academy joined forces with players from Grasshoppers and Northolt to represent Middlesex at the county festival hosted by Essex. This was attended by a total of six counties playing in two pools.

In their first match Middlesex faced eventual pool winners Essex. The long journey had clearly taken its toll on the away players, who found it hard to compete with the relentless Essex attack.  Middlesex eventually found their feet in the second half and managed to put up a spirited defence. However, the damage was already done, and Essex came away with the win. Essex 22, Middlesex 0.

The second pool match, against Kent, resulted in a change of fortunes for Middlesex. This time it was the Middlesex attack that pressurised, driving deep into the opposition’s territory. Kent defended their try line furiously, but were unable to stop Pribisevic touching down from the back of a maul. Middlesex scored again within minutes, with full-back Evans gathering her own clearance kick to score. Kent responded admirably, making effective use of quick ruck-ball to gain ground and run in two tries. However good vision by the Middlesex scrum-half, Stephenson, allowed her to exploit a gap in the defence, popping off to centre Martin, who crashed over the line to score. Score: Middlesex 19, Kent 12.

Unfortunately time constraints meant that the 3^rd/4^th playoff game was limited to a total of 7 minutes. Middlesex faced a physically imposing Bucks side, and despite challenging hard, were unable to penetrate through the defensive line to score.

As a developing squad facing far more experienced sides, Middlesex can be very proud of their 4^th placing.