A Hooligan's Game: Wilmot at home

Grimsby Gentlemen 33: Wilmot Warthogs 24 (Yesss!!!)

Venue: Alway Field (a rare Friday night game) k.o at 7:25

Weather: Around 20 degrees with sun (shadows towards the end of the game: mosquitoes were also the big winners that evening:

Referee: Brian Quistberg: I got Brian his first teaching job.

Attendance: A good number for a Friday - many might have missed the change in date.

Team: 1. Nick Lord 2. Ross Matheson, 3: Jon Millington (40 min), 4. Martin Van Der Hurk, 5. Jeremy Young(40 min), 6. Brendan Sculland 7. Mark Woodgate), 8.Drew Redford, 9. Nick Lemieux, 10. Jake D'Achille, 11. James Vinneau (60 min), 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Cameron Ruys (60 min), 14. Jeremy Inglis (first game with Grimsby- refereed our last home game) , 15. Jamie Farrell, 16, Dirk Reichow (40 min), 17.Dean Crozier (40 min), 18. Bob Mavro (20 min), 19. Heri Lewssoh 20. Erick Alvardo, 21. Gareth Rees, 22. Al Charron, 23. Rod Snow

Jeremy Inglis (fist game with Grimsby)

Dean Crozier (first game in a long time with Grimsby) back from New Zealand

Game: Our first win of the season was a classical tactical misdirection that led Wilmot to believe they could beat us any time anywhere and they probably can (except on this Friday night). The Warthogs originally wanted the Friday night game (about three weeks ago) and we agreed but the week before decided they wanted to change it back to the Saturday. This would have resulted in complications on our side with players and licenses and so it remained Friday night. It takes longer to get to Grimsby than expected and so we started late and Wilmot did not have much of a warm up. However this did not stop them from threatening at the opening kickoff (we always get scored upon in the first five minutes) because we did not handle the kick and they attacked on both sides of the field and only some desperate tackling stopped them. And then we went down the field bobbing and weaving and passing and offloading until Jake put the ball down for five and Cameron kicked after 7 min. An impressive start.

We again did not handle the kick off well but managed kept Wilmot out until about the 20 min mark, but ed the conversion was missed. However we than took the kickoff down the field and played in their end resulting in Vic scoring. At 30 min we kind of lost concentration and on a quick tap Wilmot scored and converted. Then just before half Nick Lemieux spotted the ball down in the endzone to increase our lead (Cameron converted again).

Half Time Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 21: Wilmot Warthogs 12

It was an exciting game after the half with Wilmot trying to catch up and Grimsby trying to maintain the lead. At at about 60 min, Cameron using his football skills, kicked the ball into the endzone and put it down for his first try with Grimsby (he also injured himself) . Martin was successful with the kick. Wilmot came back with a converted try about three minutes later only to have Vic reply with his second try at the seventy minute mark. One of Wilmot's quick young wingers made it closer with a final try but Grimsby held on for a bonus point win.

Wilmot asked for unopposed scrums as they had players who had not played in the front row before which took a little away from the game.

Scorers: Cameron Ruys 1T, 3C 11 points
Vic Blaney 2T 10 points
Jake D'Achille 1T 5 points
Nick Lemieux 1T 5 points
Martin Van Der Hurk 1C 2 points

So our strategy paid off with a win. This will not work in the next couple of games with Bruce because we play them at home first and it turns out they read our blog.

We raffled off our big bottle to help send Erick off to England for his Rugby League Camp with Huddersfield and managed to give him $350 and ten pounds Stirling. The winner of the bottle was Freddie Sayers from Saudi Arabia where they do not drink alcohol, so this bottle which has been with the club for over twenty years may still remain with us.