Niagara Away (June 22)

Grimsby Gentlemen 38:Niagara Wasps 39
(A small bump on our road to rugby dominance)

Record (going into today's game) Niagara was 3 and 1 with 15 points and Grimsby was 2 and 2 with 10 points.

It was nice to meet up again with Ian Matheson (Niagara's Coach) who originally started his rugby career with Grimsby.

Venue: Wasps new south field (2nd men's game on it) with their new repurposed shipping containers.

Weather: First full day of summer and warmish (23 degrees) with a slight breeze and no rain

Referee: Frank Lozano Guterrez and the Niagara number 9 - . both of them might have missed a few not straights

Attendance: We have a few avid Gentlemen supporters  who made the trip. (they wanted to get out of Grimsby and its traffic for the Happening (we did not get the call this year and did not get $500). Grimsby celebrities who made the trip included Ross, Easy and Dean. They got an exciting and close game.

Super fans

Team:

We were a little short as we usually are on Pride weekend.  

(1) Chris Atkinson (member of the props who kick and chase) (80 min), (2) Chris Goulding (60 min) (3) Jon Millington (member of props who do not kick club but score tries (80 min) (4) Martin Van Den Hurk (ran out of his shoes last week) (80 min: except for changing his shoes (5) Vic Blaney (80 min), (6) John Frasier (65 min: injured) (7) Brendan Vorstenbosch (80 min), (8) Derrick Weber (promoted to the forwards where careers last longer it seems) (80 min), (9) Dan Prentice-Chowen(80 min) (his Dad (Dave) was at the game, (10) Jake D"Achille(80 min except to get his head taped up - will need stitches), (11) Josh Thompson (stopped a three man over lap by himself) (80 min), (12) Will George (C) (80 min), (13) Sean Fraser (60 min: injured), (14) Joe Sanders (80 min), (15) Laughlin Hill (80 min), (16) Nick Lord (12 min : 10 for blood sub then just long enough to get a yellow card), (17) Ryan Montgomery (was on for about 60 min but I don't know who for). 

Chris: (English Bloke) played against  Sarnis at home: but my camera battery was not charged up.

Sean (Brock Bloke) originally from Sarnia (same excuse as above)

Game:

For starters we messed up the opening kickoff and let them retrieve it.  They then kept the ball for 3 minutes when they scored a converted try. We kicked off and managed to keep it in their end until a little loop  between Jake and Will froze their defence and sent Sean in under the posts (well close to). Dan converted.  Niagara was lucky because they got to kick off again and we knocked on which gave them the ball again and at 10 minutes they scored an unconverted try.  At 20 minutes the Wasps scored another unconverted try. However at 25 minutes we got a little back and Sean scored again (missed the build up) and Dan converted. At about 30 minutes Dan makes a long run only to have the referee decide the ball was held up so it took a couple of minutes for Dan to finally score  and convert. Niagara kicks off and we catch it (yea!) but we go out of bounds (boo!) With little time left in the half Laughlin makes a nice evasive run and scores (Dan bounces it off the posts.) 

Half time score:

At about 48 minutes Milli picks up behind a ruck at their one meter line  and falls into the endzone to score (Dan misses again). Then we kind of go off the boil and a bad throw (it was crooked ref) goes to player at the end of the lineout and he scampers in for a converted try.  Then at 65 minutes another crooked throw to the same guy scores an unconverted try. .  Niagara then gets a yellow for a high tackle. We do not take advantage and a Niagara pick up from the back of the ruck  to the blind side (I was not expecting that as there was very little room) and a dive to just get the ball down in the corner to put them 8 ahead.. We lose a player to injury and Nick comes on with some energy (he was on load management protocol) and immediately gets a yellow.  At the death while defending our line, Dan scoops a loose ball and out runs the Niagara team to score and convert

Final Score: Grimsby Gentlemen 38 (6): Niagara Wasps 39 (7) -  so close.

Scoring:

Dan 2 tries and 4 converts (18 points), Sean 2 tries, Laughlin 1 try, Milli 1 try 

Trends:

When our backs can get the ball we can run with any team.  Not counting our first two games,  we have scored an average of 44 points a game but we are letting in 34 points which will cause problems in close games like this one. We got 2 bonus points but Niagara picked up 5 points in the standings. The forwards are holding their own for the most part in scrums and we seem to be doing well in our rucks. Niagara kicked off to our forwards 8 times and I think we made a different error 6 times (they get the ball back). We continue our trend of getting a yellow in every game that has lasted over 20 minutes.. Nick atoned ahead of time for his yellow by cleaning the floors of the club last Thursday. 

Man of the match: Jon Millington

Next game is after the long weekend (July 6th) so we have time to practice kickoff receiving and we are in Fergus against a not very good team  (by results) but we still need to go with numbers.  We have played 5 games with the next one away and 4 straight at home

Chris picking up some Spanish language tips

Dan about to not score a try

Milli (no number) about to score a try

This is how it's done Dan

So my son (Mike) comes to visit last week (he had to it was Father's Day) in a new pair of shorts and he was complaining that you could not get shorts that covered the knee like he had been getting forever. So that means all my shorts are in style again.  Maybe the old style rugby shorts will  be back soon. 

Hamilton away

Grimsby Gentlemen RFC 52 Hamilton Hornets 24
(I heard there was a basketball game last week also)

  Pre Game Record
Hamilton 1 and 3  (4 points)
Grimsby 1-2 (5 points)

Venue
Mohawk Sports Park, Hamilton

Weather on June 15:
18 degrees with a strongish wind from the south (Hamilton chose to play with the wind the first half)

Referee

Ian Stewart plus Hamilton's  9 and 10, assorted backs and most of their side line supporters

Attendance: we had 6 travelling fans (4 were there for John): Drake was sighted but he was rooting for Hamilton. 

Most of our spectators (Myron was on load management and ran the tee and water- thanks Myron)

Team:

(1) Chris Atkinson (member of the props who kick club (80 min), (2) Brendan Vorstenbosch (80 min), (3) Jon Millington (80 min) (member of the props who do not kick club (4) Martin van den (der?) Hurk (80 min) (5) Vic Blaney (80 min) (oh, I was in a rugby game last week) (6) Kyle Wilson (Burlington flanker for hire but only for 70 min) (7) Dean Crozier (8) Nick Lord (58 min : injured) (9) Joe Feint (40 min and 40 min at 13), (10) Jake d'Achille (80 min), (11) Josh Thompson (80 min), (12) Will George (80 min), (13) Daniel Prentice-Chowen (40 min  and 40 min at 9), (14) John Frasier (started at prop in his career and is now at wing) (80 min), (15) Laughlin Hill (80 min) (16) A. N. Other Norfolk (22 min) - there is a reason why most players played 80 min (like in the old days when I played and no substitutes were allowed and men were men) - guess.

nice scrum but we seem to be to thrilling for the Hamilton player

Game

After withstanding a bit of pressure from Hamilton we get the ball to Dan at center (the first time in two games) and he runs 50 meters for the first try which he converts. At 10 minutes Dan does it again (except he turns the long conversion into the wind over to Laughlin who misses).  Around this time (12 minutes) Hamilton has an injury and Tom Edwards (Hamilton President) takes over and immediately gets a yellow for playing like it was 1990 again.  Of course at 20 minutes Hamilton scores and converts. Our Flanker for hire needs a rest and gets a yellow for playing like it is 1960 and at 29 minutes Hamilton scores and converts.

Kyle a rugby mercenary: Bet on us today but also bet on the Raptors to lose.
"It's good to be a Gentleman again" 

Half time Score Grimsby Gentlemen 12: Hamilton Hornets 14

After an inspiring speech by the coach about having the wind and not just running into the other big bodies of the other team, Hamilton steals the ball and scores at 41 minutes. The speech was a classic too bad it was not recorded and used as a bad example in the future.  However at 45 minutes Dan (who hasn't scored in 35 minutes)  scores and converts, then at 60 minutes he scores again and converts. After much push and shove, just to be different,  Dean scores and Dan converts, then Will scores and Dan converts then a lovely well weighted grubber by Jake which sits up for Will and he scores again (Dan misses). At 78 minutes Hamilton scores a try but at 80 minutes Jake breaks it open for a final score with Dan converting again.

Final Score Grimsby Gentlemen 52(8) and Hamilton Hornets 24 (4)

Grimsby is now at 2 and 2 (10 points) with a points differential of -7

Scoring

Dan 4 tries and 6 converts (32 points), Will 2 tries, Jake 1 try,  Dean 1 try

Trends
After two not very good games were are at 50:50 and we seem to take over in the second half (must be the fitness) or our new set of younger backs who seem to have upped the pace. Our older forwards seem to be holding their own..  We also have a yellow card in every game that has lasted over 20 minutes.

Will George: our team captain for 2019

Will George who has been in our system for awhile (playing for our farm club Stoney Creek) is now up with the big team and has been selected at the new captain.

We also have not done well in terms of numbers at practice (mainly because of the rain) but we would like to encourage players to train to get fitter and to learn some of our systems (although we don't want mess up a good thing by making players think).

Practice in the rain on Thursday

Our intrepid but wet  quartet (Kyle (former Gentleman), Dean, Dan and Laughlin)

Two more who attended practice

Next Game against Niagara Wasps in Niagara (Thorold) then a week off for Canada Day

Sarnia at home (June 8)

Grimsby Gentlemen 43 Sarnia Saints 39

Record: 

 First place Sarnia: played 3, won 3 with 3 bonus points (although our game was halted for rain in Sarnia last week) and a + 98 point differential
Last place Grimsby: played 2, won 0 with 0 bonus points

Venue: First home game of the season at Alway field : with our new (incompleted) patio
           We could use the main field for the first time on Thursday at practice

Weather: after raining all spring so far,  it was a sunshiny day (colder wind that you might have thought) a nice 21 degrees a bit of a wind that we were against the first half

Referee: our old friend Jeff Dahl (he said I think it is the first game I have referred that Grimsby has won- maybe it has been his fault all this time)

Attendance: my best guess was between ten and a thousand (never was a good guesser) - notable celebrities in the crowd were Frank Shilte (with his new Raptor's gear), Dean Nasby former president of the club, Freddy Sayers with his two daughters and I believe I saw Drake (supporting Sarnia).

Team: It will take awhile to write for we had subs for the first time in  long time: we had to do some actual coaching
 (1) Chris Atkinson (40 min) , (20 Brendan Vorstenbosch (60 min), Jon Millington , (4) Ryan Montgomery (then moved to prop for 40 min), (5) Vic Blaney (80 min at lock but only realized what he was doing after 40 min), (6) John Fraser (40 min), (7) Nick Lord (30 min- injured), (8) Dean Crosier(first game in two years), (9) Joe Faint (40 min)(first game for Grimsby) (10) Derrick Weber (40 min then 40 min fullback), (11) Josh Thompson, (12) Will George (has come back home to Grimsby after several years in the in the minors with Stoney Creek),(13)  Dan two name (40 min then 40 at nine), (14) Joe Sanders (15) Laughlin Hill (40 min), (16) Myron Jurychuck (50 min at flanker), (17)  Jake D'Achille (40 min at 10) (first game with Grimsby in a couple of years after playing at Peterborough), (18)  Martin Van Den Hurk (40 min at lock), (19) Sean  Fraser (no relation) (40 min at 13 - first game with Grimsby and first score for Grimsby),(20) Chris Golding (30 min-first game with Grimsby)

Game: Lots of scoring

Sarnia came with a much better team than anticipated and played well the first half.
Their young tall # ten scored a good try at about 5 minutes (not converted) but our good young 13 (Dan) scored a try chasing a kick that was mishandled at about 10 minutes (Dan converted). Then Sarnia scored two quick tries (converted one) because they moved the ball well in the backs and we had trouble tackling them. At about 20 minutes Dan made a good penalty kick (about 40 m).  But at about 35 min we (Dan) had a yellow card for a high tackle and Sarnia scored quickly after that.  At 40 min or so they got a yellow for intentional knock on (after several)  I missed this because I was not paying attention but somehow we got the ball down field and Webs passed to Chris Atkinson (who somehow got down field also) and fell down in the endzone. Webs converted. Then, (when you thought there could be no time left) Sarnia  scored  and then at the last play of the half they scored again with a convert. (they were one man down) Oh no
I originally thought going into the game we had a good team and would surprise Sarnia with our skill
but they were up quickly on us and we could not get the ball out to the backs cleanly, Sarnia was clearly not worried, yet.

Half time score Grimsby Gentlemen 17 and Sarnia Saints  34

We put in our subs and hoped for a better result in the second half.
Then everything came together like a plan

20 min in Josh got a nice ball from Will and ran down the right sideline (I painted them  myself) where he was high tackled for a penalty try and a bit of a dust up. Then in the last quarter of the game we started to run against them like they were running against us in the first half..  Dan made a nice break to run a long ways to score under the posts which he converted.  Another run a bit later allow Will to offload to Sean to touch down. Dan converted with a drop kick (I took too long with the tee) so we went ahead by five.  Then Jake kicked down field, chased it and got it back to score under the posts (missed drop kick).  We had out scored Sarnis in the second half by 26 unanswered points..  However at the final whistle they scored an unconverted try to give them a losing bonus point.

Final Score Grimsby Gentlemen 43(6): Sarnia Saints 39(7)

Nice comeback - nice win - must be our fitness

Scoring
Dan Prentice-Chowen  2 tries, 1 penalty, 4 converts, (21 points) 1 yellow

Chris Atkinson - 1 try (5 points)

Josh Thompson - 1 penalty try (7 points)

Shawn Fraser - 1 try (5 points)

Jake D'Achille - 1 try (5 points)

Derrick Weber - 1 conversion (2 points)

Introduction to some of our new players (my camera battery died so I only got one - I thought it was good just to remember my camera)

Joe Faint: first league game with Grimsby (from England)

Not many of Sarnia players stayed afterward as they wanted to get to Norfolk to the first team game which might have been  already over by the time they got there because information was that a big fight broke out after 20 minutes and the ref abandoned the game. (hope none of our first team were hurt)
Could all be fake news.  But Norfolk lost 34 - 0.

Record
First place (still) Sarnia: played 4  Won 3, with 5 bonus points
Fourth place (out of 6) Grimsby: played 3, Won 1 with 1 bonus point.

Next week (June 15) Hamilton Hornets Away

Below is Webs and Chris taking on ten of the opposition

After the offload, Chris dots it down in the endzone. (coaching moment: if you support the ball carrier you get the try)

Webs finishes it off with two more points

Sarnia away

So I forgot that by playing in this division we were going to have to travel to Sarnia

June 1 Sarnia Away

Well it was a mess from the start.  We did not have a lot of player registered for the team (and those who were waiting to register later did it after the Sarnia game) and a lot of players had other important things to do like country concerts, family wine tasting and
We eventually sent nine of the most dedicated players to Sarnia to play against Sarnia seconds
(I could not go because I was cutting a CD with the Burlington Welsh - I think I told you I was a singer - second tenor)
Thanks to Chris Atkinson, Brendan Vorstenbosch, Jon Millington, John Fraser, Dan Prentice-Chowen, Joe Sanders, Laughlin Hill, Josh 'Thompson, and Ryan Montgomery.

 We were supposed to play Sarnia's seconds at 1:30 tbut Norfok had even less players (6) for their first team match. So the decision was made that Norfolk would default (because we had more players) but the game would be played at 3:00/ However it turns out that some of our guys showed up late and they played for 20 minutes and there was an enormous rain storm with lightning and the game was abandon.
Long ways to go. for twenty minutes of rugby but thanks for travelling.

2019 so far

so far 2019 looks better.

We played in the Monte Heald tournament in early May but we did not win our division (I was not able to make it) but we had some new players (but not sure whom/

If you are interested in details Norfolk Harvesters wanted to play up in the Niagara A division (they had easily won the B division over the last several years) but they did not have enough players for a second team so I said we would be their second team. So when Norfolk plays away we go first against the other team seconds and when Norfolk is at home the visiting team has to send the second team to Grimsby.  Sounds good even though we know when we are playing away we sill get some of the first from the opposing team.  .It seems more interesting than playing the same teams we have been playing the last few years.

Week one ( May 11, very early) : We were to play Hamilton at home but we could not get on our field so it was postponed to August 10th

Week two (25th of May)  : We played in Guelph against the Redcoats (again I was not there so this is just hearsay -  I was singing at a concert near Port Dover and did very well - not hearsay). I also had a nice fish dinner afterward.

Team: (1) Nick Lord, (2) Skylar ? (3) Milli?, (4) S.U.M One (5) Vic Blaney (6) John Fraser (7) Brendan Sculland (8) Myron Jurychuk (9) Daniel Prentice-Chowen (10) Derrick Weber (11) Josh Thompson (12) Will George (13) A. N. Other (14) Joe Sanders (15 Laughlin Hill

We had some fill ins from our new big brother team Norfolk

Grimsby scored first with a long run from Dan bur Guelph countered .  Then Vic scored  but near the end of the half Guelph got another try

Half time Grimsby l0 and Guelph 10

The second half was mostly Guelph (entirely in terms of scoring) - they scored  3 more tries with 4 converts

Final Score Grimsby 10 and Guelph 29.

We are just getting started.

Noteable Happening: Josh Thompson a high school player from Grimsby Secondary School in his first league game (not counting the Monte Heald tournament) got a yellow card which seldom happens in Grimsby to anyone not named James We don't think that it has happened since Skully decided to take on a bunch of players in Windsor back in 2011 in his first game.

Josh Thompson

Laughlin Hill former player at BT. 

All of 2018

2018 generally was not a great year for Grimsby Rugby on the field so I forgot to write about it.