Niagara III (?) at home: Week Nine

Grimsby Gentlemen 28: Niagara Wasps III 21

Venue: Alway School: the field was good considering the heat and lack of rainfall for the last month.

Referee: Nick Carbone ** He did alright but took a lot of flack from Niagara supporters, his own club. We need to get used to his not release call but the fact we were right there taking the ball away meant that they were not and the player was isolated. It does show that there are not a lot of refs in the area.

Weather: The weather at 6:45 on Tuesday evening was much nicer than 1:30 on Saturday (mid twenties instead of mid thirties, thanks Scotty. However, the sun was lower in the sky and shadows were longer. It took a bit of time to get used to.

Attendance: Not capacity but a good turnout for a Tuesday. Eddie, Bill , Steve, and below is life member Paul who had not seen any other games this year (kids) and Martin our fixture secretary who has been at every game we won this year and only one that we did not. Martin also did the cooking and set up for the meal afterward. He also closed the bar. Great job Martin.

Eddy paid his social dues this night and became our only paid up social member this year.

Team: 1 Jon Millington, 2 Brendan Sculand, 3 Nick Howe, 4 Jeremy Young, 5 Dean Gibson, 6 Martin Van Den Hurk, 7 Vic Blaney, 8 Kyle Wilson, 9 Nick Lemieux, 10 Derick Weber, 11 Chris Short, 12 Levi Rowbottom (guest player) (40 min) , 13 Martin Colyn, 14 Trevor Trotman, 15 Alex Millar, 16 Nathan Rowbottom, (60 min) 17 James Vinneau (40 min)

(plus assorted guest players)

Dean Gibson (20 min injured) - Nathan Rowbottom

Nick Howe (30 min injured) - guest player Jason Haynes

Casualty Ward

I should be in the causality ward as I now have gout in my big toe as well as a resurfaced humerus.

Presidents Report: Expecting Niagara to bolster their team, we arranged for a little more strength than usual. Thank you to those extra players. It was an exciting game, played hard with lots of straight ahead running. A nice game to win but their team was a lot different than the team we played and beat handily the last time. As happened last time, they controlled things for the first twenty minutes and we had to defend mightily (or whatever). At about twenty minutes a bit of confusion from a lineout on our five led to a pass being delivered to the wrong person who tried to run it out of the endzone and was stripped of the ball. But quickly we came back and after a saving dive by Nick we scored (I missed it), I think by Nathan Rowbottom. * (need reference) A few minutes later, Martin V picked up a ball at a ruck about 20 meters out, made a quick dash the ruck, avoiding all contact, and scored under the posts. Then after a lot of grity rugby by the gentlemen to get the ball into Niagara territory, Vic charged under the posts for our third try. Near the end of the half however, we relaxed and Niagara came back with their own crashing try.

Half time score: Grimsby Gentlemen 21: Niagara Wasps 14

At the start of the second, Niagara came out running hard with their big boys and a new and shifty #10. They won the territory battle and we had to defend mightily (again) to keep them out of our try zone. Webs made several good kicks to get us out of trouble. The other team said from the side line that kicking was all he could do. Then at about 20 min Webs did the other thing he is good at and took a quick ball to the blind side of a ruck, found a seam and headed for their fullback. Freezing the fullback he fed to our fullback (a guest player but we will give it to Nick who usually plays fullback) who scored. Niagara came on and with about 7 minutes to go managed a final try.

Final Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 28: Niagara Wasps 21

A final note was the extraordinary kicking of Chris Short. Chris, playing in only his third game of rugby ever and first as a kicker, kicked all four conversions and missed on a fourty meter penalty by only a bit wide left.

Scoring

Nathan Rowbottom? 1 T

Martin Van Den Hurk 1 T

Vic Blaney 1 T

Nick Lemieux (although the other guy got his ass burned) 1 T

Chris Short 4 C (8 points)

The following is me trying to photoshop a rugby ball for Martin's head just after he scored and Chris is coming in to kick the conversion.

The following is Vic scoring his try through a slew of Niagara players and our players cheering him on (barely in picture) but not supporting well.
Coaches Report: It was a nice bonus point win which could have gone the other way if we had not held fairly firm on defense. It was nice to see a team poorer at lineouts than us. Due to a couple of brain cramps, I played a couple of guest players before our players and I do apologize (thanks to Dylan to point it out). At times we had some continuity in moving the ball but we still need work in that area . Scrums were again excellent and a problem for the other team. The referee seemed to be calling the not release law different than the other refs and we had trouble with it an got penalized several times. Speaking to him afterward, he seemed to know what he wanted and we will have to play to the referee (a lot of refs are calling or not calling it differently). Thanks to all for being respectful and not like the visitors who were on his case almost every call. They must not have read the missive from HQ this week.

Although we will not make the playoff, but we still have a bit more rugby to play, starting with a friendly game against Hamilton on Thursday August 4 and a return game in Hamilton August 27. Thanks to your captain, Derrick, who raised $110 for the social committee with his keg party at his house after St. Catharines.

Note: Think of some witty and/or unexpected statement that summaries the whole blog.

St. Catharines away (Brooker Cup V): Week eight

FIFTH PLAYING OF THE BROOKER CUP

Grimsby Gentlemen 5: St Catharines Tigers 13

Brooker Cup Results over 5 years

Grimsby Gentlemen 1 : St Catharines Tigers 2: Tied 2

Venu: Ridley College a hot, hard field

Referee: Gareth Jones ****

Weather: about 30 degrees but felt like 40: a day that was probably too hot to sit by the lake and drink cold beer - so we played rugby

Attendance: The Wolfs showed up - Martin Wolff and Dan Wolfrack - Jeremy's uncle, and Laura and Marie and the ref's daughter who was cheering for us. Beth was there only to drive me and she took the pictures.

Team: Jon Millington, Dylan Kinch, Nick Howe, Jeremy Young, Bob Mavro, Martin Van Den Hurk, Brendan Sculland, Kyle Wilson, Derrick Weber, Andy Breuls, Trevor Trotman, Vic Blaney, Martin Colyn, Chris Short (first game ever), Jamie Scully, Nathan Rowbottom and Dean Gibson (injured but ran touch)

President's Report

It was a hot one which perhaps kept tempers down and it was one of the better games between the two teams (the only better time is when we win). We started slowly and the Tigers controlled a lot of the play in our end. After a turnover at a lineout they attacked quickly in the backs and scored after about 12 minutes. We gradually started to gain more confidence and put on some pressure. At about 30 min, Derrick took a quick tap penalty and a quick pass to Martin C. opened the scoring for us. At about 37 min, we again lost a lineout and a similar try was scored by the same Tiger as before.

Half Time Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 5: St Catharines Tigers 10

After giving up a penalty in the first minute of the second half, we played much of the half in their end but could not score. Strong effort.

Final score: Grimsby Gentlemen 5: St Catharines Tigers 13

Coach's Report:

A good effort, it was hot and we only had one replacement (they had a number). Again we damaged them in the scrum, but did poorly in the lineout. We caught them a few times in kick coverage, but missed a couple of times. We do alright with the initial play but do not move the ball on quickly - too many slow rucks. One of the cleaner games we have played with our local rival and I think we play better when we concentrate on the game.

Congratulations to Chris Short for playing in his very first rugby game, he played the whole game and played well.

My pick of man of the match was Kyle Wilson for his leadership during the game. Their pick was our youngest (under age)and our lone try scorer, Martin Colyn

A couple of pictures of our forwards and backs in Brooker Cup action.





The older guy is Rick? the father of Jeff Innis, their scrum half, who is getting a couple of knees replaced and wanted to play one last ceremonial scrum with his son. The dad did not want to leave as he thought he had made the team (they are pulling him off).



I am glad you didn't make me play with Mike before they replaced my shoulder. Everybody says this oxycodon is dangerous but I find if you are careful and take two every four hours, there are no side effects. Except, as Mike recommended, you should take a stool softener or you may not take a dump for longer than the six days it took me. It is very boring as you cannot do much with a bad shoulder, thank God for women's soccer. It also takes a long time typing all this with a left hand. Also, while I think of it, wiping yourself with your wrong hand should be an Olympic sport.

Norfolk at home Week Seven

Grimsby Gentlemen 0: Norfolk Harvesters 39

Referee: Nick Carbone (a little late due to traffic: start 1:40)

Weather: Warmish 25 degrees, clear, so clear you could see the individual blades of grass or that might have been from the oxycodon I was on

Attendance: not as many as the blades of grass

Team: Jon Millington, Brendan Sculland, Nick Howe, Jeremy Young, Dean Gibson, Bob Mavro, Martin Van Der Hurk, Kyle Wilson, Derrick Weber, Trevor Trotman,

Vic Blaney, Martin Colyn, James Vinneau, Jamie Scully, Alex Millar, Nathan Rowbottom (we now have 27 registered players - about 7 more than last year at this time-

but we only have sixteen today

Some of the Causualties

Unfortunately, we had to go well down in our depth chart for our 10 today. I only saw the first half which did not look that bad and Vic played very well in the loss for his first time leading the offence especially since he is naturally a back row.

It took over twenty minutes for Norfolk to score first and even though they generally controlled possession did not look that impressive. They started to chip kick which put some pressure on our backs and scored again with a couple of minutes left in the half and again on the half.

Half time score; Grimsby Gentlemen 0: Norfolk Harvesters 17

Missed the second half as my drugs were wearing off - if anyone remembers anything interesting tell me and I will add it

Last year we played Norfolk in Norfolk in week six and lost a close one in the last minute 7-0 and again we only had sixteen players at that game. However 5 of those players are not with the club for various reasons (Frank Della Fortuna, Alex Stevenson, James Tulloch, Scotty Walker, and Jon Jeske) So we have made those numbers up and had several serious injuries (4)to cover for. Also 5 of the new players are 21 or under. Norfolk is better this year and is leading the Niagara B league. We are coming along.