Grimsby Gentlemen 36 : Northeast Philadelphia Irish 7

May 24.2013. 7:00 k.o.

Venue: Alway Field

Weather:  nice evening but a little cool, just made for rugby

Referee: Paul Byrne (abandoning his rugby league leanings)

Attendnce:  With lots of interest it was way above the average

Sponsor: Steamwhistle Brewery

Sorry, I am a little late with this but I had a computer virus, more high school rugby, saw Canada play Fiji and actually have a life. 

The Northeast Philadelphia Irish came to us in the second half of a home and home series (we went there last Easter).  Fifty-four of them including a women's team arrived in Niagara Falls around 4:00 in the morning, caused havoc in the hotel, saw the falls (they think) and came to Grimsby.  They were all kitted out in their new tour shirts.  A t-shirt had "Where's the bus?' on the back.  (You had to be there - in Philadelphia - at Easter)

Alex Millar piping on the ball (and running out of breath - he couldn't play rugby until the second half.

Grimsby respecfully waiting for Alex to collapse

Team:  1. Jeremy Young, 2. Brendan Sculland, 3. Jon Millington (40 min) 4. Dirk Reichow, 5. Martin Van Den Hurk, 6. Kyle Wilson, 7. Bob Mavro, 8. Adam Godfrey(10 min) 9. Derrick Weber, 10. Martin Colyn, 11. Brenden Nytschyk (40 min)12. Vic Blaney, 13. T.J. (Hamilton), 14. Ryan Llwellyn (40 min) 15. Nick Limeaux, 16. Colin Comfort (70 min at flank), 17. Alex Millar (40 min at wing)18. Sian Moms (Wilmot- 40 min at prop), 19. James Vinneau (40 min at wing)

A prop was injured (Nick) playing Wilmot so we made them give us one of theirs (Sian), seemed fair.

The warm up game was played by the Northeast Philadelphia Irish and St. Catharines Tigers Women (we had to borrow a team) .  The St. Catharines girls set the example by convincingly defeating the Irish with only 14 players.

I missed a lot of our game or wasn't paying attention but we seemed to handle the visitors easily (unlike two months ago at Easter).  Adam scored first and then went off with a cut head, Derrick converted.  Philadelphia came back with a converted try but soon Grimsby backs established dominance and Martin C. and Vic scored in the first half and Derrick struck for a penalty in there some time.

Half time score  Grimsby Gentlemen 22: Northeast Philadelphia Irish 7

Second half was more of the same with our backs showing dominance nay brilliance with Martin and Vic again scoring and Derrick kicking enough to bring the score to 36 points for us.

Final:  Grimsby Gentlemen 36: Northeast Philadelphia Irish 7.

It was a good game for us with lots of opportunity to run with the ball, the Irish were missing a number of players who could not make the tour and we weren't.

Vic and Martin had a great day together.

Vic on the run with support from Alex (he recovered) and Martin

Martin scoring his second

However sometimes Milli would get between them (must be in the first half).

from Vic

to Milli

to Martin

The beer up was exciting, nay thrilling, with flying syrup bottles and three kegs of beer consumed (a new record for kegs and syrup at the clubhouse).

A few more pictures (thanks to Jennifer Reichow I have had about three hundred to sort through - which also accounts for the delay in getting this published)

Adam getting groped by the Irish (must be the fetching head band)

Vic practicing air guitar

Nick taking some time to read the writing on the ball

Also thanks to Jennifer for making many salads along with Nick Lord's mother.  Also thanks to Craig Lord (Nick's father) for manning the barbecue all night. Thanks to Kaley Stuart for sharing her expertise in dealing with our antiquated and unsanitary beer serving system. Congratulations to Vic on the social and to Brendan for fixing and cleaning the clubhouse.

There were four cars left at the clubhouse overnight (also a new record).

A tidbit of Grimsby gossip:

Who was that gentleman climbing Wolverton Mountain at noon on Saturday after a night of debauchery in the flesh pots of down town Grimsby?