A Hooligan's Game: Week VI: Stoney Creek Camels away

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Week VI: Stoney Creek Camels away

Grimsby Gentlemen 45: Stoney Creek Camels III 58

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Venue: Saltfleed High School

Referee : Dale Hall did well ** (only 19 years old - I have t-shirts that are older than he is)

Weather: About 26 with real feel of 33. But it was positively cool compared to the last week. Lots of water on the field from a big rainstorm the night before.

Attendance: A whole bunch of girls from the game before but they left to drink after 5 minutes.

Team: 1. Nick Lord , 2. Brendan Sculland , 3. Jon Millington , 4. Colin Comfort 5. Adam Amirault 6. Bob Mavro, 7. Dean Crozier, 8. Kyle Wilson (C), 9. Nick Lemieux 10. Martin Colyn , 11. Brad Vorstenbosch, 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Brandon Nytschyk, 14. James Vinneau, 15. Adam Godfrey

Unfortunately we had one expected player (Jake) get mono and another wing (Jamie) get his appendix out on Thursday, so with no subs (the other team also had no subs) we had a hooker on the wing and a #8 at fullback to start. Then Kyle got injured on the first play (but stayed on for the rest of the game as a wing) Our regular captain Derrick Weber was working fixing the hydro lines from the storm the night before. A few other players did not show (not sure why).

We have not played the Creek in a number of years in league play and their firsts are doing really well in the Marshall (first place), so we did not quite know what to expect. We were trying to avoid our traditional slow start but circumstances led a lot of people playing out of position we reverted to our traditional slow start, perhaps to catch Creek off guard. However it backfired as Creek started quickly scored 4 tries in the first 17 minutes. It turns out our scrum was better than theirs but we had no chance to show that until we were down a lot. We had trouble stopping them as they ran hard and offloaded well.

We eventually got the ball down into their end and a good push on their 5 meter scrum led to a turnover caused by Dean who dropped on the ball in the end zone. Vic converted. Five minutes picking up a loose ball Vic barged over to make it seem like we were on one of our patented come backs and had worn out the Creek by make them run so much. However they brought the score back to 4 tries ahead by scoring twice in the last five minutes of the half.

Half time score: Grimsby Gentlemen 14: Stoney Creek Camels 34

Insightful coaching comments led to a bit of a come back and a little tightening of the anal sphincter on Creeks behalf as it looked like we were rallying. First though Creek scored again before Bob managed to drive a ball in to the end zone. Now things are looking up as they are not running as well and we are pushing their scrum and getting some ball, scoring some tries and making more conversions. However a lineout in our end led to a blocked kick (second of the game) and they are up 5 tries again. Now things get confusing and I know prop Nick Lord picks up a ball and runs like a back for about 60 meters pulling away from the chasers. Also scrum half Nick Lemieux makes a nifty darting run that they cannot stop. I know Vic scores two more tries and makes two conversions but I do not know the order. Also somewhere in their we let Creek run around the end and score two more tries. We did score the last two tries of the game. The third game in a row we have won the second half.

Final Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 45 (7 tries): and Stoney Creek Camels 58 (10 tries)

The 103 points scored is the highest total point accumulation in a Grimsby game since records have been kept (5 years ago) It was an exciting encounter for the 5 or 10 in the audience. Our new resolution is to try harder in the first half.