2017/18 was a busy year for Renegades. Having won the league in 2016/17, things became more competitive in a stiffer league with some serious new adversaries. Winning this league was going to be a tall order but a successful third place was ground out and we managed to beat every other team in the league at least once!
The familiar league finished in January and it was added to by a mixing of the three leagues from Eastern Counties Division One (North, South and West). The top two teams from each league played the top two from each of the other leagues with the scores against the team from their own league counting in this competition also. The same for the third and fourth placed, the fifth and sixth and the bottom two. That was how we found ourselves playing new (to us) teams like Norwich Union, Diss 2, Ipswich and Colchester. We had a series of home games that went well with Renegades beating three of the four visiting teams. The away fixtures were more of a challenge. The travelling made the numbers poor and we lost three away games before failing to field a team in the final away game against Colchester. The Eastern Counties Division Plate finished as follows:
The season finished with a rip-roaring cup final against Bury St Edmunds Rovers. Things looks pretty bad at half time with Renegades trailing 7-19. However, the game was raised for the second half with Renegades closing the gap so that a couple of minutes from the end the score stood at 24-24. Then the Bury full back got the ball and scorched 60 yards through the Renegades to sore a try which was converted, 24-31. This was a cruel end to the Renegades comeback. There was no answer and a couple of minutes later the final whistle blew. A win would have been sweet, but Renegades were able to take something from a fine second half performance.
The full list of fixtures along with match reports:
| Date | H/A | L/C/F | KO | Opposing Team | Result | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2 | H | F | 3:00 | Cambridge 3 | Lost 12:36 | Report... |
| Sep 9 | H | L | 3:00 | Bury St Eds 3 | Lost 5:17 | Report... |
| Sep 16 | A | L | 3:00 | Saffron Walden 2 | Won 18:34 | Report... |
| Sep 23 | H | L | 3:00 | Thurston | Post-poned | |
| Sep 30 | H | L | 3:00 | Shelford 3 | Won 20:5 | Report... |
| Oct 7 | A | L | 3:00 | Cantabs 2 | Won 41:10 | Report... |
| Oct 14 | Free | |||||
| Oct 21 | H | L | 3:00 | Cambridge 3 | Lost 10:71 | Report... |
| Oct 28 | A | L | 3:00 | Haverhill | Won 35:19 | Report... |
| Nov 4 | H | L | 2:30 | Saffron Walden 2 | Won 86:21 | Report... |
| Nov 11 | A | L | 2:30 | Thurston | Lost 7:50 | Report... |
| Nov 18 | A | C | 2:30 | Haverhill | Con-ceded | |
| Nov 25 | A | L | 2:30 | Shelford 3 | Lost 26:55 | Report... |
| Dec 2 | H | L | 2:00 | Thurston | Won 36-21 | Report... |
| Dec 9 | H | L | 2:00 | Cantabs 2 | Won 31-17 | Report... |
| Dec 16 | A | L | 2:00 | Cambridge 3 | Won 24-15 | Report... |
| Dec 23 | A | F | 2:00 | Newmarket | Played | |
| Dec 30 | Free | |||||
| Jan 6 | H | L | 2:00 | Haverhill | Won 96-0 | Report... |
| Jan 13 | A | L | 2:00 | Bury St Eds 3 | Won 19-12 | Report... |
| Jan 20 | Free | |||||
| Jan 27 | Free | |||||
| Feb 3 | H | L | 2:00 | Colchester 3 | Won 37-5 | Report... |
| Feb 11 | Free | |||||
| Feb 17 | H | L | 2:00 | Diss 2 | Won 28:12 | Report... |
| Feb 24 | Free | |||||
| Mar 3 | H | L | 3:00 | Norwich Union | Post-pon-ed | |
| Mar 10 | H | L | 3:00 | Ipswich 2 | Won 36:6 | Report... |
| Mar 17 | Free | |||||
| Mar 24 | A | L | 3:00 | Ipswich 2 | Lost 22:36 | Report... |
| Mar 31 | H | L | 3:00 | Norwich Union | Lost 15:29 | Report... |
| Apr 7 | A | L | 3:00 | Norwich Union | Lost 10:29 | Report... |
| Apr 14 | A | L | 3:00 | Diss 2 | Lost 29:51 | Report... |
| Apr 21 | A | L | 3:00 | Colchester 3 | Can- celled | |
| Apr 28 | A | C | 4:30 | Bury St Edmunds | Lost 24:31 | Report... |
And, of course, our table of top scorers was hotly contested between Baz and Ross, both of whom made it to three figures with Baz shaving it in the end. Baz had the good grace to acknowledge that many of the points he got were from converting Ross’s tries!
| Renegade Scorer | Try | Pen | Drop | Conv | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew 'Baz' MacKay | 2 | 9 | 34 | 105 | |
| Ross Catchpole | 20 | 100 | |||
| Ollie Witt | 14 | 70 | |||
| Ben Powell | 11 | 55 | |||
| Dan Stockbridge | 3 | 23 | 55 | ||
| Will Blackwell | 10 | 50 | |||
| Tom Powell | 7 | 35 | |||
| Jack Weatherley | 3 | 1 | 6 | 30 | |
| David Fletcher Morris | 4 | 1 | 22 |
||
| Elliott Roberts | 4 | 20 | |||
| Tom Heathcote | 4 | 20 | |||
| Stuart 'Fabio' Faben | 2 | 3 | 19 | ||
| Tom Cowley | 2 | 5 | 20 |
||
| Tom Proctor | 3 | 15 | |||
| Rolando Pesci | 3 | 15 | |||
| Rhys Stephens | 2 | 10 | |||
| Aaron Stevens | 2 | 10 | |||
| Chris 'Machine' Machen | 2 | 10 | |||
| Matt Faiers | 1 | 5 | |||
| Daniel 'Ginger Dan' Leith | 1 | 5 | |||
| Daniel 'Ginger Dan' Leith | 1 | 5 | |||
| Adam 'Speedie' Richards | 1 | 5 | |||
| Jake Sweet | 1 | 5 | |||
| Andy Howard | 1 | 5 | |||
| Harry Cowley | 1 | 2 | |||
| Total | 100 | 16 | 0 | 70 | 688 |