Sarnia Saints at home

Lonely fields during COVID but we kept a light on

 

June 11, 2022

I have missed a few days and have a number of games to catch up on but the camera was not working and so I did not get any pictures.

We have played two games before this one the first being a game against our big brother team, the Hamilton Hornets, as an exhibition and they had a lot more players than we had. We scored two tries early but they outlasted us (forgot the score).  the first league game was against Stoney Creek Twos and we had an excellent team with our Canadian Player (Junior) Glenn Butler who just graduated from RMC attacking in the centers and a whole bunch of new backs (still mostly old forwards) and we beat Creek 57 to 5. I will need to review the tapes to get all the details since I was tending bar.

A lot of changes at the club which I may or may not tell you about. 

Grimsby Gentlemen 33: Sarnia Saints 38 (Rugby Ontario has the score at 38 to 43 for Sarnia - so I must have went to sleep at some point)

All of the information gathered below, due to inattention on my part, is mainly obtained through hersay, rumour, gossip, and bribery  - so nothing below should be considered fact or that it even happened.

Venue: the storm tossed field at Alway (lightning and clouds and raindrops)

Referee: Special apprearnce by the President of the NRU, Eric Ciezar, although he was coaching his girls team in Niagara Falls and we needed to delay the game to 4:00  and then it was delayed to 4:35 because the game in Hamilton was delayed due to the lightning and the Sarnia boys were all on the same bus.

F.Y.I: 4:35 is when many of the Grimsby players are taking naps normally. 

Ref checking for ticks

Attendance: Standing room only (all the seats were wet) with Paul Rhoner and his new knee with and special guest from Northern Ireland (about 58 years ago), John Mcfarland .

Paul and Miller

 Team:  A lot of new players since before COVID days which is great to see. 

1. Nick Lord (40 or so minutes (in and out),2. Brad Vorstenbosch (hasn't played in a couple of years but is my man of the match because he came out and lined the field), 3. John Millington (still at it)(50 min), 4. Martin Van Der Hoek (60 min), 5. Christian Parris     (80 min), 6. Brendan Vorstenbosch (about 70 min including 10 at Number 8 - we will never get him back to hooker), 7. Joe Saunders, (20 min to start - was going to throw up - came on again a bit later) just back from working in the states, 8. Dean Crossier (70 min) could be getting younger, 9. Nick Lemieux (80 min) back for another season, 10. Dan Prentice -Chowen  (80 min) man-of -the match game, 11. Sean Gupa (70 min) (not his real name but one I can pronounce) from Zimbabwe- great tackler, 12. Chase Lupton (80 min)(he's heard all the jokes before), 13. Josh Seabrook (80 min)(new young flanker playing in the centers), 14 Josh Thompson, 15. Jake  Graaf (80 min)    (loaned to us from a Toronto team), 16 Chris Atkinson (who? 50 min) 17. John Fraser   (40 min) 18,19,20 - Zach, Brian and  A. Nother who were loaned to us from Hamilton. 21. others maybe 22. Vic is still registering and Mark Woodgate is thinking of registering every Thursday night but it goes away every Friday

The Good, The Bad and the Rugby

We got off to our usual start with two fairly quick tries in the first fifteen minutes (as is our wont at least for the last three games) by Dan and Christian (Dan converting one), then (as is also our wont) we let Sarnia back into the game by allowing them to score twice (no conversions). then they allowed us back in the game after a nice run and try assist by Dean, Dan scored and near the end of the half Nick Lemieux touched down for the first time in a long time (sorry no picture Nick), Dan converting both.

Half time score Grimsby Gentlemen 26: Sarnia Saints 10.

Now would be a good time by our new coach Jim Graff  to end the game because the lightning was too close or for an outbreak of COVID or we kick all the balls into the poison ivy part of the brush - but we missed our chance. You see Sarnia came on one bus from Sarnia (funny that) and played Hamilton first (because we needed a ref) then came to  Grimsby (they beat Hamilton 46 to 25) and despite protests from their seconds (or that may have been our players) their first teamers started to leak on (or maybe it was the wind in their backs) and the game changed. Sarnia ran in 4 (maybe 5) converted tries before we got one by Dan at the death to make the score somewhere between 33 and 38 for us and 38 and 43 for them.  Who cares as long as everyone is having fun and we don't have to travel to Sarnia.

Coach Jim and Referee Eric (checking the weather)