Grimsby Gentlemen vs Kent Havock Week Ten

Nothing to report as Grimsby did not have enough players to make the 3 hour trip to Chatham. We had to default, which I think is the first time for the first team in the modern era. I hope everyone enjoyed their rugby free weekend with a little guilt.

I thought I would update a little on the history of Grimsby Rugby since I have the time. These historical moments are in no particular order and are only published when I think of them ..or I should say research them.

It seems many years ago up at Alway school a few of the boys were kicking around a ball when William Webb sent the ball accidentally onto the road presently known as Ridge Road (then too) where it got run over by a hay wagon with eight work horses, each of whom stepped on the ball with each foot. The others chided William for his incompetence and lack of skill. William defended himself by saying he meant to do it as he now had a ball no longer round but in an oval shape.

He said " There are thirty of us and I will take half and we are going to run this oddly shaped ball down the field and touch it down in the endzone. Try to stop us you scrummers." This was a word that William did not know what it meant but it sounded bad.

The words were barely out of his mouth when he was hit by a number of opposing players and only just managed to offload to a supporter who did a DSP to make a break and with help managed to put the ball down in the endzone in about 10 phases.

A passing school teacher observed what happened and called the boys together. "Gentlemen" (some say this is how we got our name), he said, " You have just invented a new game and I think we will call it Alway after the school."

Unfortunately he was not very bright and lived with his mother and didn't get out much. It was, in fact, 1978 and rugby had been invented some hundred and fifty five years before at Rugby School in England. Its a good thing William Webb Ellis had not gone to school in Penetaguishene. I only mention the whole incident as it was one of the few times Grimsby Gentlemen has had 15 players on the field.