Friday, June 23, 2017

Burlington tournament April 29th

Aside from being a very wet spring it has not be a good one for numbers with the club. We played in a tournament in Burlington on April 29th and since the playing insurance was paid we retrieved a number of players (because we needed the numbers) for one day and added a few new ones.



                     
Ian played his first game for the club after many years away from the game.

Tom played his first game for Grimsby since High School and got injured (ribs, sternum)on the first play (played for the next three games), but has not been able to play since.  

Ben Jeske played his first game for the club and the first in several years (Ben is from Edmonton and is the brother of former Gentlemen Jon Jeske)


Erick, Sam and Duncan came from London and Mississauga to play.  They played for the club two years ago but now are busy working and playing that other code (rugby league)


Other guest players were Adam who occasionally plays with us and Tom a big prop from the military.  The front row of  Tom (army) Vic and Nick as a sight to behold. We felt this was just for fun and did not keep score but the other teams did and we did not win the tournament. 

Good time overall. 

Club Dinner 2016


This year the 2016 Club Dinner was held in 2017. We get things done - but slowly.

Thirty-five attended and had a good time but not so good we had to carry anyone home (although many were picked up and driven home).
Older players who are smart enough not to play anymore (except Chris)




Katie is a little bored (this is her second year)
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Vic is wondering why is is standing alone at the bar. 

The annual awards:
Rookie of the Year went to Myron Jurychuk who learned the game quickly and whose claim to fame is that he is the member who lives closest to the club (he also built the new shelves and drawers in the bar).

                         

Most improved went to Will George one of our centers. This was Will's second year with the club with a year with our farm team (Stoney Creek) in between, This award was presented by our club manager Ross Matheson.

Will and Ross
Player of the year went to our Captain Jake D'Achille who took over the 10 position and did very well.  He was away at school in Peterborough so Ross drank his beer. 

Clubman of the year was presented to Chris Atkinson, who after many years away returned at stepped into the Secretary role with the club and worked very hard on the 40th anniversary. 

Thanks Chris.
 Our unanimous selection for Deer's Rear (doing the most silly or awkward thing on the field) was unable to be there but got his award for attempting a pick and go from the base of a ruck on the one meter line but forgetting to check on the opposing forwards.  He went to the side with both their props and the next ruck was five meters back.  Well done Austin.


Kyle and Bob of the famous Bob-Kyle Awards gives James I his Miss Congeniality award (the chain of pink hearts)
James I got the Miss Congeniality award for almost getting a red card (it would have been our first in years) - get got the card and was sent off but the ref (new) found out how much work it was to red card someone and did not report it.  In a sport of roughness James was a little too rough.



The members who "carried" Frank for years



Sunday, April 2, 2017

New Year's Touch


 The annoying tradition of playing touch early(?) on New Year's Day continued for 2017.  We had a new record for the turnout with thirty players (eventually), multitudes of fans and seven chili dishes. It was a bit cold (around 3 degrees) with a light dusting of snow at kick off .

spectators on the lower tier (standing room only)

spectators on the upper tier
spectators on the field
Only one in shorts
Milli was out and played (with a severed Achilles tendon (learned later)
A few celebs in action




A record of six chili dishes and a potato soup (Myron's fault).

Chili contest award winner Alex Millar


Our blog as of January 1st had 41 739 hits compared to 32 209  on Jan 1st of 2016 which is an increase of 9530 hits over the year which is about 1000 more than in 2015.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

AGM 2016

We held the AGM to go over 2016 and to elect the officers for 2017.  Ten people attended the meeting (one on the phone) and discussion were had on the anniversary weekend, our finances and attracting new players.

The executive for 2017.

President:  Bill Stuart (again)
Secretary: Chris Atkinson (re-elected)
Treasurer: Nick Lemieux (re-elected)
Social Secretary: Vic Blaney (re-elected)
Club Manager: James Vienneau (Ross Matheson declined to run again this year so James took on this portfolio as well as the Junior Programs)
Club House Manager: Brendan Vorstenbosch
Junior Secretary: James Vienneau.


2016: The good, the bad and the rugby

I guess its time to review the outcome for the summer.  After we defeated Wilmot on our 40th anniversary event (that's two in a row against Wilmot), we went to Burlington to take on their seconds.  I was not able to be at the game but Grimsby did well just losing by 5 (33 to 28).  It is always tricky when playing clubs who have more than one team playing at home, they keep bringing on fresh players although it is against the NRU playing regulations.  Anyway we scored four tries and came within 7 points for two bonus points. Try scorers were  Austin (his first as a Gentlemen, I think), off a neat move from a ruck, Myron (his first) and two by Jake.  Conversions were by Will.

We than went to Norfolk (I got there into the second half) just in time to see Jon make a strong run but then tackled by four players.  He went off with an ankle injury and has not returned.  He joined the other three players who were off (we only took 17 in total) so were were very short.  Vic got the first yellow of the season and we were even shorter.  Needless to say it was nice to end that game (to the eventual undefeated league winners) and get out of Waterford.  Jake was selected by them as the man of the match.

Because we were all beat up and had three of our four front row out injured we asked Stratford for a postponement which they agreed to and also agreed to come to us on a Thursday.  So on Thursday July 28th we played Stratford at home.  We borrowed a few Niagara players, (Dan, Ian and Stephan) but  even then we were up against a very good Stratford team with a couple of players over from a university in England.  They managed to pile a number of tries on us before it got dark with only Dean able to score a try for Grimsby along with a penalty by Will. Stratford had only won one of their first five games until they beat Burlington by 80, us by 76 and Bruce by 78.

We were due to play Bruce the next game at home but they asked to postpone the game to August 27 because of an issue with one of their players (moving up a wedding because of an ilness).  Although we knew we would lose our captain Jake to university we agreed to the postponement.

This led us to the original last game of the season against Niagara II to be played at home.  When St Catharines joined up with Niagara we continued playing the Brooker Cup against which ever team we were in the same league with.  The game should have been played in Niagara but since the schedule had the game in Grimsby we played it in Grimsby but on  Thursday August 18th (they were having problems with numbers and could not put three teams out on the Saturday).  We agreed to play it (otherwise we would not have gotten a game) and they did not stack their team very much.  We still had problems with numbers and ended up with only 14 to start (this was mainly due to backups on the highway) and they scored before we could get our 15th player on.  The score ended up being a loss 15 to 7 (we had a chance to kick a penalty but it was 20 m out and they wanted to run it - that would have given us a bonus point in the standings and we would have beaten Wilmot and tied Niagara in the standings)

The last game was played against Bruce on Saturday August 27 and they were weak (they only had 15 players in total).  We were missing our Captain (Jake) but managed to put a team together and got off to a good start.  James Peden a first year player in Grimsby and new to rugby scored his first try of the season.  Will kicked a penalty and we withstood an attack on the goal line for a number of minutes.  Ross scored at about 25 minutes so the half time score was 13 - 5.  We scored three more time in the second and they scored twice.  Final score 34 to 21.  Nice way to finish the season.

During the season we had four wins (Wilmot at home on the fourtieth anniversary weekend, Brice in the last game and two games against Brantford by default).  We got beat up a couple of times and could not field a team for the away game in Windsor.  We need to concentrate on getting more players for next year.