Wilmot at home

Grimsby Gentlemen 28: Wilnot Warthogs 20

Venue:  Alway Field with newly renovated clubhouse.

Referee:  Alistair Gabb (very young: I have older pairs of socks)- wearing an Uxbridge High School Tigers shirt but attending  MacMaster)

Weather:  After cooling down a bit from last week in Chatham it climbed right up there into the low thirties.

Attendance:  It was the official opening of the clubhouse after a year or so of renovations and the recognition day of fourty years since the founding of the Grimsby Rugby Club so we had standing room only (if you did not have a chair) and packed terraces.

standing room only

terraces packed

Greg Evans, Scott Nicholson (an original all the way from Nova Scotia) and John Fairclough (a player from 1983 to 1993) and someone else

more famous originals: Jim Van Roon and Wayne Scobie

 Team:  1. Ross Matheson (60 min) 2. Brandan Vorstenbosch, 3. Jon Millington (60 min), 4.James Vienneau(45 min)5. Nick Lord and 40 min of prop , 6.  Martin Van Der Hurk , 7.  Dean Crozier (Kiwi I)l,  8. Vic Blaney ,  9. Austin Marck 42 min 10. Nick Lemieux (38 min), 10. Jake D"Achille (C) 11.Austin Marck (40 min - then to 9 for 30 min) 12.Will George 13. Derrick Weber , 14. James Peden  15. Cam Rhys 16. Nathan Bruch (10 min) 17 Dirk Reichow 40 min at flanker) 18 Chris Atkinson (20 min)19. Brad Vorsetenbosch(78 min), 22) Flipper (20 min)   

Game:   Cam kicked a penalty early but Wilnot went ahead on a good run by the fullback at about 23 minutes.  However at 30 minutes Can kicked his second penalty and we went into the second half with a slim lead.

Half time:  Grimsby Gentlemen 6: Wilmot Warthogs 5

Early in the second half Wilmot  scored a try under the posts to go up by six and five minutes later scored their third try to go up by eleven. However at fifteen minutes our comeback was started by Webs setting up Will to cross the line and score  under the posts. At thirty minutes a strong run by Cam led to an offload to Derrick for the try and we are ahead again.  However Wilmot comes back to score a penalty to regain the lead by two.  At thirty-five minutes Can slots a penalty to put us ahead for good and a late try by Vic and Cams second conversion results in an eight point win. 

Final:  Grimsby Gentlemen 28: Wilmot Warthogs 20

Well done, a famous come from behind win in front of the alumni (you cannot get better than that).  Great job by the backs, probably a toss up for man of the match between Derrick Weber and Cam Rhys.  Wilmot picked Cam because they know he cannot drink beer (we lost the beer off) but he scored thirteen points by the foot.  We picked Wilmot's eight man. 

Sassy touching down our first try

Webs going in with the second try

Vic heading for the final try

The team (and a couple of kids) 

I will write something about the 40th celebration soon ( as soon as I recover)

Chatham away

Gentlemen 0: Kent Havoc 36            


                              

Venue:  215 Murray Street in Chatham (do not put in 215 Murray Street Chatham-Kent as you will be directed to Wallaceberg which is a whole other place).

Referee: John Weller from London.  Good job John.

Weather:  Kent always turns on the heat when Grimsby shows up. 32 degrees with a promise of thunderstorms which did not happen. (It was similar to last year but without the high humidity)

Attendance:  It was too hot for our supporters except for one( thanks to Nick Lord's dad: who we tried to get to play)

Team: 1. Nick Lord 2. Brendan Vorstenbosch, 3. Jon Millington, 4. Dirk Reichow, 5. James Vienneau, 6. M. Issing, 7. Chris Atkinson, 8. (wearing 7) Dean Crozier, 9. Austin Marck, 10. Jake D'Achille, 11. James Peden, 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Dakota Uhru, 14. Myron Jurychuk, 15. Will George.

Game:  On a warm day, the kick off for Kent did not go 10 and  the first of 5 scrums in the four minutes was called and since Grimsby was short a player in the scrum (we only had 14 players) we got pushed back all 5 serums.  Eventually got our hands on the ball and Dakota, as he likes to do,  took the ball for a hard run and injured his knee. He had to come off to be looked at.  This put us down to 13 players so at 10 minutes a kick to our depleted back line was not covered, and Kent scored in the corner. At about 14 minutes Kent managed a try between the posts and the overlap killed us with a return of a kickoff to the try line.  It looked like a rout was on but Dakota came back to the field and we managed to hold Kent and get into their end a couple of times.  We got some ball on our head and even stole a couple against and did well in the lineouts.  A penalty at 30 minutes from about thirty meters out was the only scoring in the rest of the half.

Half time: Grimsby Gentlemen 0: Kent Havoc 21

Kent was really interested in the bonus point and so did not give us a player until 10 minutes into the sceond quarter at which time they scored their fourth try.  Grimsby kept up the fight but heat, no subs, the long drive  and the effects of aging ligaments on some of the players meant we did not score at all but could have probably kicked a couple of penalties.  Kent scored with 25 minutes to go and put on all their fresh players.

Final: Grimsby Gentlemen 0: Kent Havoc 36.

Got no chance to play today

Dakota (with banged up knee) creating havoc with the Havoc

Thanks to those who made it to Chatham, you did well considering being down players, many of whom were playing out of position, no subs and the heat.  Congratulations to Dean who played several years younger and had a great time testing their defense at the rucks and who was recognized for it by being our man of the match.

Dean: deftly sidestepping between three opposition. 

We went back to the local Legion for cheap beer (old Vienna on draft just like Teddies) and very good lasagna. Austin was being annoying wanting the Legion ladies to remove all the mushrooms so one little old lady said if he ate a mushroom and went unconscious she would give him mouth to mouth. He ate all his mushrooms hoping and pretended to collapse. 

We ended the afternoon (at least I did for the ride home but Chris, Jon, Dean and Vic stayed the night which might take up a whole other blog; I am confident Chatham will survive) by singing the National Anthem  at the start of the live dancing music at the Legion ( I wish I didn't have to go home - dancing in the afternoon in the Legion - the place to be in Chatham.  Next time in Grimsby,  I pitch the song (it was too low) and we sing the politically correct version. 

Next up is Wilmot at home (our first home game) and our Fourtieth Anniversary Celebration with a day of flag players, an under 18 girl's game, an old boys game and Wilmot.  We will have music in the evening.

Grimsby Rugby: 

Building Gentlemen 

Since 1977

Brantford at home

Game not played as Brantford had difficulty with players travelling (we had a team for a change- even though they quickly found something else to do rather than clean).  Some of the young 'uns had a do the night before and felt at 1:00 the next day they should not drive.
 Will be played Thursday July 21st.

Two new fans attended (pun intended)

.

Brantford away

Grimsby Gentlemen 12: Brantford Harlequins III37

Venue:  George Jones field in Brantford (actually near Brantford in farm country)

Referee: Ian Stewart (our personal ref)

Weather:  about 31 degrees at Kick off - felt like 38 (almost Chatham like).

Attendance: supporters must have had trouble finding the field as we have not been here for seven years.

Team:  1. Ross Matheson (60 min) 2. Brandan Vorstenbosch(I think), 3. Jon Millington (60 min), 4.James Vienneau(40 min)5. Nick Lord and 40 min of prop , 6.  Chris Atkinson (15 min- injury), 7.  Dean Crozier (Kiwi I)l,  8. Vic Blaney ,  9. Nick Lemieux (40 min), 10. Jake D"Achille (C) 11.Austin Marck (40 min - then to 9 for 30 min) 12.Will George 13. Cam Ruys (40 min then to fullback for 40 min), 14. James Peden (first rugby game ever- 40 min) 15. Derrick Weber (40 min)16. Nathan Bruch (20 min at flanker - didn't like lunch- first rugby game), 17 Dirk Reichow 40 min at flanker) 18 Dakota Uhru (40 min tackling at center - first senior men's game) , 19 Myron Jurychuk (40 min- first senior men's game), 20 Martin Van Den Hurk (55 min at flanker and lock)  21. Brad Vorsetenbosch(40 min at wing) and 22. Bob Mavrothalasitis (20 min at flank). You are still thinking of men in a shower aren't you.

James II (first rugby game ever)

Myron (first senior men's game)

Nathan (first game ever)

Dakota (first senior men's game)- that's Jon in the background pretending to be a Muslim terrorist (which is always funny until a bomb goes off)

Game:  Good turnout for an away game and with the new players and it  was mentioned a lot of good things happened.  It is too bad we met up with a put- together talented team which had a lot of experience. (Barkley Luke played several years with Canada 7s and 15s a little over 10 years ago.) However they did have some old guys (one player I played against so he was in his sixties).  The game kicked off (as usual) and a bit of mishandling on our part led to an early try by Brantford and for the next twenty minutes we managed to hold our own and get into their territory a little although they were moving the ball well against our defense. After the water break at 20 minutes we had a bit of a defensive breakdown and in the next ten they scored three times.  During the half Jake had a good run but a weak pass stopped the break and Will had a great run near the end of the half that ran out of gas due to little support.

Half time score:  Grimsby Gentlemen 0: Brantford Harlequins 22

The expected comeback in the second half was overshadowed by their score with 35 minutes left in the half but about 5 minutes later the water inspector (formerly known as Nick Lord)  managed to touch down to put us on the board (I assume someone was keeping  track on the board - I forgot to look).  We kept at it with some great hard tackling by Dakota and Vic which made a couple of players wish they had gone with the firsts to Fletcher's. But about 15 minutes later Brantford, after some deft passing, touched down in the corner. We mustered an attack and Vic scored down over some very old guy and  Cam got the conversion.  The scoring was finished by Brantford with a try at time.  Brantford got 7 tries and we got 2.  They moved the ball well and we did not cover well.

Man of the match for Brantford was Barckley Luke amd they choose Vic Blaney (who got to keep the glass)

Next up Brantford again 00ps sorry Brantford cannot bring a team, good luck in Bruce this year. We will do a club cleanup this Saturday and have an friendly with ourselves.  Bring a towel as the magician reports showers will be ready.  Next game away in Chatham.

the stuff of magic

the magician

ball eating tree

Take that