Misfits 2015

The Misfits (Philadelphia) at home

Grimsby Gentlemen 2 tries: Misfits 5 or 6 (forgot to count)

Venue:  Friday evening at Alway Field, k.o. at 6:50

Referee:  Again Ian Stewart (our personal referee)

Weather: very nice spring evening a bit coolish with a gusty breeze from the south.

Sponsors:  Brand new shirts thanks to Adan and to all the sponsors who paid for them.(We have all kinds of logos like a professional bike team.)

fist game with new shirts (Adam is missing)

                Profast:  

                Access Canada Equipment:

                 Aqua Flow Plumbing

                Physiotherapy @ Cruise Chiropractic

                Vital Link Wellness Center: 

                Steamwhistle Brewery (donated kegs)

Special thanks to our sponsor Brendan Nytschyk of J.J. Cores who collected the tab for the Misfits all evening.

Attendance:  In spite of the international aspect of the game we do not think we hit our goal of 500 fans but then no one actually counted.

Paul Rohner (original), Jim Van Roon (original player), Tony Evans (original coach), Wayne Scobie (original player)

J. Greig Inglis (former coach) and Alex Millar (former player)

Thanks to all the old boys who came out to see us including those above and also seen around were Bill Stabler and Chris Atkinson (that I can remember).  They all agreed that they were glad they played before rugby got more difficult with lifting, more continuous play, drinking maple syrup and mustard and burning assholes.

Team:  1. Ross Matheson, 2. Brendan Sculland (50 min), 3. Jon Millington (65 min), 4 also 3. Nick Lord (50 min), 5. Jeremy Young, 6 also 8, Erick Alvardo, 7. Drew Redford (40 min), 8 also 5. Mark Woodgate,
9. Nick Lemieux, 10. Derrick Weber, 11(actually 22). James Vinneau (40 min), 12 and 7. Vic Blaney, 13 and 15. Cameron Ruys (first game with Grimsby - he is the one with the Irish accent)(65 min), 14. Duncan Earl, 15. Austin March (65 min), 16 Brendan Nytschyk (back again after a year off) (30 min), 17. Bob Mavro (65 min), 18. Stefan Johnson (first game with Grimsby)(40 min) , 19. T. J. Cole (50 min), 20. Martin Van Der Hurk (40 min), 21(actually 11). Sam McGee  22. Tony Evans
               
The Misfits: are a touring side composed of several teams from the Philadelphia area.  They arrived at the club around 4:15 and started to practice from 4:30 to 6:00 before the game (I remember when we never ran on tour).  They were youngish and much fitter than the Philadelphia Irish we played two years ago. They did have their problems at the border though because the Canadian border guards said they were too drunk and the bus too messy to cross at 1 a.m Friday morning.  They had to repair to a restaurant, clean the bus, drink coffee for an hour or so to try to recross.  Even then they were interviewed and one of them was not allowed to cross because of two DWIs. (One might think they might like to have him in the country as a tourist especially when he is on a bus and not driving)   This whole process probably sobered them up enough to get enough sleep and be ready for us. (They did not look as chirpy in Burlington the next day.)

The Game:

The Misfits were ready and aggressive and caught us off balance from the start.  They kicked a short kick off and recovered ball back and after a few cycles scored near the posts (2 min).  On our kick off they brought it back hard,  finding gaps in our defence and picking up yardage. They chip kicked in our end and  a  good cover run by Duncan was spoiled by a missed grounding  in-goal and led to the second score.  Philadelphia continued to run at us and by 20 min had their third try of the night.  However after that we seemed to get back in the game with some hard tackling and hitting and they no longer had their own way. Just before half time some quick plays in their end (after penalties) led to Vic putting the ball down for Grimsby.  The conversion was missed.

 The bruising  hitting by both teams continued into the second half and Philly scored again. However from a scrum in their 22, a nice dummy switch left Derrick on a break and great offload to Nick Lemieux on a good support run led to a try between the posts.  Conversion by Cameron (his first points for Grimsby).  I did not keep good notes but The Misfits continued on to score at least a couple more tries but most spectators said we did very well against a large physical team that could move the ball well.

I happened to go to see them play Burlington III in Burlington (and I retrieved our game ball).  It was a lot like our game except with the wide field the Misfits had more space.  They also scored on the opening kickoff and eventually won 61 to 7.

Aftermath: 

Vic did a great job organizing, cutting and cooking for the social.  He also organized several games which including downing syrup and mustard.  In my day we only drank and sang.  As mentioned Brandon sponsored their team for beer and food and they were good guests and did not stay a long time (Alex suggested they go to the Canadian strippers - so they did) .Thanks to Jon and Jeremy for working behind the bar.

They chose Erick Alvardo as man of the match for his spirit in taking on the big boys.

Mark, lifted by Jon and Ross, had another great day in the lineout. 

A little bit of scrum violence in a bucolic farmland setting. 

This is a quote from Dan Carter, New Zealand's great fly half.  The whole article which speaks to his desire to play for the All Blacks and about his career can be read in this article.

http://www.theplayerstribune.com/dan-carter-new-zealand-all-blacks-rugby/

:

For those interested:

In general play, players are considered off side if they are in front of a team-mate who is carrying the ball or in front of a player who last played the ball. Those players are temporarily out of the game and are liable to sanction if they move forward towards the ball and this includes the in-goal. Law 11.1 states that a player can be offside in the in-goal.  I asked several referees about this interpretation and they agreed.

St. Catharines Tigers, St Kitts,  Niagara II , Niagara I at home (first game of 2015 season) and Brooker Cup IX

The venerated Brooker Cup

Grimsby Gentlemen - 5 : Niagara - a whole bunch

Venue: Alway field with the almost unrecognizable (inside) clubhouse

Referee: Ian Stewart - continued from the last game of 2014

Weather: Warm early May day of 30 degrees (way to hot to play) with a bit of a southerly wind

Sponsors: A whole bunch of new sponsors this year as we will be getting new kit, thanks to Adam.
           
                Profast:  Access Canada Equipment: Aqua flow Plumbing
                Physiotherapy @ Cruise Chiropractic
                Vital Link Wellness Center: J.J. Cores
                Steamwhistle Brewery

Attendance:  We did not hit the 500 mark which was our goal for the first game but they were enthusiastically laid back (see picture below).

followers with dog

former players Kevin and Kevin (SportXpress: Your Community Sports Connection)

Future players with Kevin (their hockey coach), Brad, Josh, Dakota, someone, and Nathan all from the Beramsville high school team

 Team: (Managed to get 16 registered by Saturday morning - so the game went on).

1. Ross Matheson, 2. Brendan Sculland, 3. Jon Millington, 4. Martin Van Den Hurk, 5. Jeremy Young, 6. Duncan Earl (first league game for Grimsby), 7. Adam Meehan, 8. Mark Woodward, 9. Nick Lemieux, 10. Derrick Weber(C) (20 min injury), 11. Bob Mavro (has not been on the wing for a while), 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Erick Alvardo (first league game for Grimsby), 14. Austin Marck (first game for Grimsby), 15. Jake D'Achille, 16. Drew Redmond (60 min) (first league game for Grimsby).

Austin Mark

Duncan Earl

Eric Alvarado

Duncan and Eric alternate codes playing union on Saturday and league on Sunday. (A lot more exertion than I would want in a weekend).

Drew Redford

Game:  The gods were not on our side this Saturday.  We have a touring team "The Misfits" from around Philadelphia coming on May 22 but our first league game would be the next day.  We are not all like Duncan and Eric (play two games a weekend) so we asked former St. Catharines Tigers now called St. Kitts which is the second team for Niagara Wasps to play last Saturday.  We only had 16 registered while they had 24 available.  However many of their players were their first team and a number of whom were or are playing for Brock University.  We were outgunned and out classed but we managed to put up a bit of a fight.  Our captain was injured after about twenty minutes (hope it is not another season like last year, Derrick) and we had to change a number of positions.  They scored a lot the first half but at the start of the second Duncan made a long run down the left wing and eventually Jake  touched down. He took a very interesting kick for the convert but missed.  We had a couple of more forays into their five between their tries but we scored no more.  We do know that if we had played them in two weeks when we were supposed to, they would have had a completely different team against us.

Winger Bob slowing down the ball for the recycle. 

Duncan making his long run

and Jake eventually scoring through all those players. 

a good catch by Martin

a drive by Brendan

The ball has been removed from the picture and you have to figure out where it should be. 

Typical rugby - everyone happy after the game (some more than others)

A good post game celebration, Vic with his usual amazing spread and special thanks to Elizabeth and Paul for stepping in and helping behind the bar.  Vic was also awarded  man of the match by Niagara, great game Vic. Next we play the Americans in a rare Friday night contest. 

The clubhouse is coming along with plumbing and electrical being worked on this week.  We would all especially like to thank Marty Vorstenboch who owns D.F, Gerow Plumbing and also Aqua Flow Plumbing.  He is the general contractor directing the renovations and he has donated five thousand dollars to the club, which is the largest private donation we have every received.  Thank you Marty. He declined a picture. 

Nu Plc 4 U 2 P

Recently while wondering out loud if we could replace the tile around the urinals (we were having tile floors installed in the washrooms) as the small tile around the bases was very stained and would we would not be able to clean it well.   

And then Brendan, using his magic, put in these two beauties (the lower one is for me to use exclusively). It is a good thing as the old urinal on the left was rusted out and our excretions were only being directed  to the septic tank in a general way.

There is something mystical about properly installed plumbing, almost a religious experience. No more splashing of urine on to bare legs so keep your dribbles in the porcelain and not on the floor, please. And thank Brother Brendan.

Shout out to Kyle and Bob:  Always do drugs in alleys, and piss in urinals.

Note:  Just recently this blog had it 25 000 th hit since Dec 2008.  It just goes to show that if you write it no matter how unlikely and even if it is about urinals, someone will read it.

Education

New Years Levee 2015

New Years Touch (two games of best of seven)

Venue: Alway Field

Referee: everyone

Weather: zero degrees with a brisk wind from the south west there was no snow on the ground

Attendance:  estimates are between 4 and 40 depending upon alcohol consumption. (probably closer to the 4)

Team:  Frank Shulte,  James Vinneau,  Martin Colyn,  Brendan Vorstenboch, Nick Lord, Alex Millar, Dillon Kinch, Dean Nasby, Jake D'Achille, Nick Lemieux, Bill Stabler, Chris Atkinson, Vic Blaney, Derrick Weber, Jon Millington, Alex Easton,   Brad Vorstenboch, Adam Meehan, Ross Matheson, Craig Evans and Will George. (21 is a new modern record)

Spectators:  Some cold bodies.

Some of the action:  If the pictures do not look good it is because I switched the camera to take athletic shots and the poor thing did not know what to do.

Vic got the season wrong.

Best dive of the day

I wonder who is scoring this try.

Best hat of the day

Our chili judges (former club presidents)

Brendan: 2015 Chili winner (secret ingredient was moose meat) 

"A Hooligan's Game" blog was looked at a record 7 thousand times in 2014 which was almost 1500 more than in 2013.  The biggest story was Brooker cup VIII blog with 178 hits which moved it to fourth all time. The most looked at blog all time continues to be Wilmot away in 2010 with 405 hits.  "Detritis" a poem by Les Barker which was read at the 2013 dinner moved into second place with 225 hits.  The blog has been hit 23,717 times since Dec 2008. Every now and again we get a hit from New Zealand which I am sure is Dean seen here in New Zealand at Eden Park  in Auckland last year in his Grimsby Rugby Jersey.    

Dean is returning to visit Grimsby this summer. 

Clubhouse 2014 (The Roof Redux)

Our special project for 2014 has been the clubhouse renovation.

The clubhouse is the former two-room Alway public school which was built in the mid-fifties to replace a smaller wooden school on the same site.  The school was closed in the mid-seventies* (citation needed) and it was used for various things including the home of the Grimsby Optimist Club. Around 2000 the town was planing to tear it down as it needed a lot of work but our president Chris Atkinson, along with the Grimsby Lion's club, offered to save the building for a rugby clubhouse (not exactly sure what the Lion's club wanted to do but probably wanted to make it a project like the Lion's pool in town).  In 2002 a Trillium grant was obtained to put on a new peaked roof, new windows, siding, furnace and upgrade the electrical service.  The town put in a water pressure system with a cistern. The town then put in the washrooms and spent a year working on the field including an irrigation system from the well. Wayne Hodgson of Hodgson metals in Niagara Falls donated the real rugby goal posts. The fields and the clubhouse were opened in a special event in 2006. With the addition of our flag rugby division in 2008, we have become the top athletic facility in Upper Grimsby.

The second renovation started in January 2013 when the town (Bruce Atkinson, Director of Recreation, Facilities and Culture) agreed to bring in an engineer to make drawings of the clubhouse and to make estimates of cost.  This took awhile and we eventually got the results in the summer of 2013.  This is when Nick Lemieux came on board to spearhead the Trillium application process.  We visited the TriIlium office in St. Catharines to get more information and although it was close we made the Feb 1, 2014 date for applying with pictures, drawings and two estimates for each part of the request.  Trillium came up and visited the site and after more support from the town (Bruce again), we were awarded $66,000 from Trillium organization last summer to redo the roof, add flooring to the main room (to be a source of revenue), and build two change rooms with showers.  Hopefully most of this will be done by spring 2015.

By Friday Sept 19th we were ready to do the first item on the agenda which was redoing the roof.  We managed to get the old roof off and a couple of sides done on the weekend but it still took two weeks to get the final tarring done (actually there is still some more work when things get warmer).

This is Brendan removing the first set of shingles early Friday morning. 

Colin, Brendan, Vic and Alex.

Nick, Chris, Kyle, Dirk (hidden), Martin, James and Vic (Day Two)

One side and front almost done.

 In total, members contributed almost 300 hours of volunteer time doing the roof.  Brendan and Vic took days off work and contributed 39 hours each on the roof themselves. Other contributors were Bill, Nick, Dirk, James, Steve, Alex E., Martin V.D.H., Paul, Chris, Kyle, Ross, Alex M., Colin, Jon and Bob. Thanks to all who contributed time and who we can blame if it leaks.
Special thanks to life members Chris Atkinson and Paul Rohner who helped with the roof, second edition, as they worked on the first one (it did leak).  Chris has the distinction of being the only person who has fallen through the original flat school roof.
Because of all the help we managed to put on the roof with a fair amount to spare from the Trillium grant and were able to apply some of that money to repair the water damage inside and paint most of the main rooms before the club dinner.

In case you were not able to help out, this is what the field looks like from on top of the building.

Also an enormous thanks to Jim Barkley who came in and finished off the drywall repair work (Jim also donated his time to do the drywall work originally).

The floors did not get in in time for the dinner on Dec 6th but a lot of work was done by Nick and Vic in cleaning and painting to get the place in order.

The next work is to get the floors in (the ceramic tile is in now except for the kitchen) and start on the change rooms.Stay tuned.

Annual Dinner 2014

  

On  Dec 6th we held our annual dinner at the Alway clubhouse for the first time ever.  We have used Alway since the spring of 2006 ( in finally cleaning up we found dead flies dated from that time) but never thought it would make a good venue for the dinner as it is a long ways from town, what would we do after the dinner and the place was quite dirty . Vic felt we could put the dinner on (he knows a caterer) and it turned out very well.  First we had to put on a new roof (so things did not leak on us) thanks to Trillium, then we had to fix the water damage (thanks to Jim Barclay).  Then we painted everything that did not move and the paint made the place look good. We were hoping that the new floors would be laid in time, however they were not done and we had to make do with a good sweeping and washing thanks to Vic and Nick.  At least we know that we would have to be really bad to get kicked out of this place (but no need to try).

Thanks to Vic and his caterer (Vic did all the set up) and we had an excellent meal.

Vic and friend

We were ably served by the barkeeps.

Our Servers: Natalie, someone in the middle and Jared. Thanks!

Dapper Master of Ceremonies brought in at great expense.
(Has trouble remembering names)

The picture below shows Derrick Weber contemplating rugby in one of the 3 and 1/8 games he played this year.  He originally injured his ankle playing indoor soccer (co-ed) in the winter then went on light duty at work with a wrist problem.  He played the first two games then stepped on a piece of broken bottle and damaged his heel.  He missed only a couple of games but broke his toe after 10 minutes against Stratford.  He only made it back for the last league game.  Also he turned thirty this year (it does not get any easier Derrick).   For this reason he got the rarely given "thanks for coming out" award.  Surprisingly there was some competition this year with Nick Lemieux who broke his thumb after 5 minutes in the second exhibition game and Kyle Wilson only playing two games (shoulder).

watching last season go by

Dillion Trimble helped coach Beamsville High School last year and played club rugby for the first time. He had never played scrum-half but we had lost our experienced 9s through injury and we persuaded him to try it.  Playing about 7 games at scrum half and two at wing, Dillion scored ten tries in nine games.  He also took over the kicking duties and scored 82 points in total (this was 40% of our total points this year).  It is for this reason, Dillion was named as the team's Rookie of the Year for 2014.

Dillion: Rookie of the Year
Poker.... that's just like playing cards.

We had a trio of senior (experienced) players join the club this year.  On the left is Mark Woodgate who filled the required New Zealander position on the club which was vacated when Dean left last year.  To Marks right ( actually his left) is Adam Meehan who has played for many teams in Ontario.  Adam handles the ball the way he handles glasses of red wine.  The next person to the right is Milli who is photobombing the three amigos.  On the end is Alex Easton who came back to the"game played in Heaven"after 7 years playing soccer  (the game played in the lower town). Alex is a former club president and is our Comeback Player of the Year for 2014.

Alex: on right: Comeback Player of the Year.

Nick and Ross: Clubmen of the Year 2014
The picture of Ross on right is not out of focus - Ross is.

For the first time ever we are giving out two Clubman of the Year awards (we once did give one award to two people: Laura and Martin Van Der Hurk for their work with the flag program).  This year we are giving the award to two people for two very different but significant roles they played with the club this year.  This award could also be called the "unsung hero award". 

Nick was and continues to be the fixture secretary and did a great job in this position but he also spearheaded our application for a Trillium grant.  The whole process is a lot of hard work and we ultimately received $66 000 to renovate the clubhouse.  To this point we have put on a new roof, repaired water damage to walls and re-painted most of the rooms. We will be adding new flooring soon and later this winter change rooms with showers will be built.  He has also spend a great deal of time working to get the clubhouse ready for the dinner.  For these reasons Nick Lemieux deserves the Clubman of the Year for 2014.  

Not to lessen Nick's award but to recognize Ross Matheson's extraordinary work the past year in the area of coaching .  Ross returned to the club after about 15 years elsewhere (the local farm team) and although he wanted to be lower profile for the start he stepped up took over a big leadership role on the team. .  Ross attended most practices, lead fitness and coaching drills and was asked to be captain on the field in the absence of the regular captain due to injury.  Ross has also accepted the job as club manager for 2015.
Congratulations to both Ross and Nick. 

Club Manager and Team Captain presented Vic Blaney with the 2014 Player of the Year award as the main player on our side that other teams look out for in terms of hard running with the ball and devastating tackling. The mere fact that Vic is out there opens up lanes for other players.  

Vic does not normally dress like this - just after practices and formal affairs. 

The last "official" award is the "Deer's Rear" which goes to someone who usually has a "brain fart" on the field and this year it goes to Jame D'Achille who while making a fine break manages to fumble the ball with only the try line ahead. Classic.

It turns out I don't have a lot of pictures of Jake

Other dinner guests enjoying the ambiance:

Chris and  Bill (life members): Scott and Dave (former players)

Jim(an original member of the team 38 years ago this spring), Martin (former player)  and Paul  (life member)

Elizabeth, Chantel and Mary

Kyle and M.P. (Kyle says he is going to get her more letters for Christmas)

A new player to the club this year Chris and Melissa

Brendan (clubhouse manager) and another Melissa. 

Bob and Vanessa (aka Melissa)

Presentation of the special Kylebob awards.  Always anticipated and enjoyed by some.
Introduction of the first Jian Ghomeshi award to Derrick

Jon and Vera

Martin is not sure he heard Milli correctly. 

Martin who has an amazing amount of knowledge about rugby floating around in his head pays careful attention to what others are saying especially when Jon says it.  Jon has a way of coining a phrase that Martin will then record. them and call them Millisims. For example (the suitable ones)

Milli
on education:  "You train a bunch of monkeys to do something but as soon as one starts throwing shit".
on his profession:  "I'm all over that like a fat screw salesman on a smartee "
on fashion:  "I always buy motorcycle tee shirts because they are so large you don't have to wear pants."
on something:  "It attracts me like a moth to a fly."

A special thanks to our team photographer, Jennifer Reichow, for her collection of pictures from the year and the comments.

We always wondered what we would do after the awards we given out if we held the dinner at Alway.  What would members do after and how would we get them back to town so they can go to the Legion and cheer up the veterans.  We solved these problems by running out of beer and so every one left.

Goodby:
(Bob is right beside the place where the no smoking sign is going). 

The End

I am not sure exactly where he is going to put  that phone (just don't ask to use it)