Teddington travelled down to Warminster for the Quarter final of the Papa John's Cup on Saturday, full of confidence and with a general feeling that a Twickenham appearance on the 7th May is now becoming a real possibility. 

The wonderful thing about this competition is it pits you against opponents you would not normally come up against. In fact, this is the first time that these two clubs have met in a competitive fixture.

Although the opponents were unfamiliar, Teddington knew that Warminster would provide a stiff challenge. Like all sides in this competition, they have performed admirably this season, finishing runners up in the equivalent Dorset/Wiltshire league.

The Antlers were pretty much at full strength for this one, welcoming back top points scorer and fly half Bob Beevers into the line-up, and offering attacking options across the whole of the back line.

Warminster started with a big pack who provided a challenge for the Teddington forwards, putting pressure on in the early exchanges.

Similar to last week, Teddington reverted to their goal kicking to get their noses in front as Beevers nudged the Antlers into a 6-0 lead and in the process of doing so went passed the 200 point mark for the season.

Now in front, Teddington started to control the game and it was on the half hour mark that top try scorer Harry Smith crossed the whitewash for a try which put the visitors 13-0 ahead.

That score seemed to beak the home sides resilience somewhat and a further Beevers penalty and a try from Stuart Ridler meant the Antlers turned around 21-0 to the good.

The game continued to go the way of the Surrey Champions in the second half with 3 further trys being scored, two of which went to perennial try scorer Harry Smith as he completed his hat trick. Warminster got a deserved consolation score, but this was Teddington's day as they secured an impressive win on the road. 

All eyes were then on how the semi final draw panned out, with two south east sides, Teddington and East Grinstead in the pot with St Ives (Cornwall) and Wensleydale (Yorkshire) who could hardly be further apart geographically.

A home draw is all you can hope for, and it was kind to Teddington as we will welcome the Cornish side to us next Saturday.

Another game against new opponents and judging by their form this season its certainly going to be a cracker of a game to see who goes to Twickenham on the 7th May. 

Final Score Warminster RFC 7 Teddington RFC 42. Man of the Match Dan Robertshaw.

Papa Johns Counties 2 Championship draw – 29/04/23

Teddington v St Ives

Wensleydale v East Grinstead