New Years 2012

All the best for 2012: I predict a step forward for the club this year in numbers (junior and senior), playing and the clubhouse.

We again had a good game of touch for the first game of the year.  The temperature was a balmy 5 or 6 degrees but the field was quite soggy (at least it was better than a polar dip in Lake Ontario).  We had about fourteen out with four or five novices although we were missing a number of regulars (probably to hung over). I was in great shape since I did not drink much on the 31st because I was recovering from Frank's 40th birthday on the 30th (Frankie did not make it). I got a few pictures but the camera ran out of juice.  We played for about an hour and the final score was 7 -6 for the good guys.    


Except for Andy, the guy second on the left who arrived just in time for the post-game picture a good time was had by all.

The Bob Mavro award for cooking was awarded jointly to Mike for cooking the burgers (left over from the season) and to Milli for organizing and bringing the roast beef.  An added advantage was when James went out to find a lost game ball from the summer  - he found it.

Since starting this blog three years ago we have had 6 124 hits and the most for an individual blog was this year's review of the game against Waterloo with 180 hits. At that time we only had around 3 500 hits. We could use a few more followers.

A few more pictures

organization

concentration

action

Gentlemen or Hooligan?

The oft repeated quote that football (soccer) is a gentleman's game played by hooligans and that rugby is a hooligan's game played by gentlemen and is the source of the title of my blog about the Grimsby Gentlemen Rugby Football Club is surprisingly not that old (or at least not that old compared to me).  Sean Fegan in his blog JottingsOnRugby.com actually found that the earliest reference he could find was a quote from the Chancellor of Cambridge in "The Times" of London of January 30, 1953 in an article called "The Evolution of Football" which states:

           "... a large family-Association, Rugby Union, Rugby League, Gaelic football, American football and Australian Rules.  Each clearly has its merits and may safely be left to its adherents, but one cannot refrain from repeating the story of a certain Chancellor of Cambridge University (confessing complete ignorance of all football), who was asked to sum up a debate on Association and Rugby.  "It is clear,"he said," that one is a gentlemen's game played by hooligans; the other a hooligan's game played by gentlemen."


Note the Chancellor did not determine which code was the gentlemen and which code was the hooligans but left it up to history and myself to decide; so I did.

Fegan's blog is a fascinating look at the history of rugby, check it out.

         

Hooligns: Police spoil all our fun.

100 people were detained in Russia after police mistook rugby match as brawl

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Authorities in southern Russia detained over 100 people when police mistook a game 

of rugby as a brawl.  Police apparently received a tip that a large crowd had gathered
at an empty sports ground on the outskirts of the city on Sunday afternoon.  Around
70 policemen arrived at the scene to find a large number of cars parked around the 
area, and what appeared to be a crowd that was watching two rival gangs fight each
other. 
The police stopped the event and around 100 people were detained until they learned
that they were actually playing a game of rugby.  Everyone was released within a few
hours, but authorities were displeased that they had not informed them of the sporting
event earlier.  A spokesperson for the police said,"Given the difficult, troubled situation
in the region, at a time when counter-terrorism actions are being actively conducted,
citizens are obligated to inform [authorities] either verbally or in writing of their
intentions".
"The fact that police took us to be hooligans, this isn't the first time," said one of the
organizers. 

Letter to the Guy Above the Bar

Dear Guy

Hasn't it been just great weather this fall?  Here it is almost Christmas and we have not had any snow or ice  and the temperature has been a lot warmer than one would think. Still you would not expect to look out your window and see a guy dressed only in girl's underwear and a shocking pink boa (you probably get to see more of this in the warmer months).  The couple of men with this guy definitely should not have been ringing the doorbell or knocking and yelling. We should not have been doing this and have no problem with you calling the police (I guess if there no bank heists or serious crimes then they have to be somewhere).  You might have waited until the next day to call your landlord to complain.

It was not planned to go outside during the awards dinner but several events came together like a perfect storm with this result.  One significant happening was your hammering on the floor of your room while were were eating our dinner in the pub below.  I understand that perhaps about 8:30 on a Saturday night you might want to sit back and drink a quiet beer while watching the hockey game (aren't the Leafs doing well this year, but don't count on them to make the playoffs) and that you would be upset by the noise from below. But the thing we were wondering was, do you realize that you live over a bar?  Now I don't know how busy George is but at times I know the bar is going to get noisy (I have been there when some loud bands were playing).

Perhaps you expected that it would be looked on as a joke, but you have to be very careful to pull that off and you have to pick your crowd.  This group certainly had no sense of humour.  For example I told this great joke, well here it is and you decide, I will shorten it a bit.

This guy goes to a urologist to get his prostate checked and the doctor turns out to be youngish, cute and female.  So she puts him on his left side and tells him to say "ninety-nine" as she explores.  He says "ninety-nine".  However, she says she cannot feel it properly and puts him on his right side and tells him again to say "ninety-nine".  He complies.  She still cannot feel it properly so she puts him on his back so she can check again but she says she will have to hold his penis out of the way.  She again tells him to say "ninety-nine".  He says "one, two..".

Now isn't that hilarious but surprisingly it did not go well, so don't expect a group like that to laugh at some knocks on the ceiling.   (Maybe they do not know what a urologist is.)

One of the other things that happened was one player was given women's panties and a pink boa as a joke award, so of course he had to put them on and he was the one you saw out side.  Here's where the weather comes in, if it had been snowing or very cold he would not have gone out, as it was he did not stay our long and you could tell it sure was cool when he came in.  He gets the same gift and he does the same thing every year so we are kind of used to it but it probably is a surprise to the casual viewer like these big cops (you invited).

Another thing that would have taken up some time (after dinner and the awards we basically wait around until it is time to go to the Legion to cheer up the veterans, it was nice the police also came) was table surfing an event started last year and should have taken up a lot of time.  I blame myself for not having coached the proper skills of table surfing and the first participant landed to the side table, pulling out all the screws so the whole top came off  and he slid (quite hard)  into the edge of the next table with his chest (he could have been hurt).  In the interests of safety, I shut the activity down and the crowd's energy could only be released by them (three) going outside yelling and ringing door bells.

The next day (late the next day) everything does not seem so funny and could have led to more serious things like (as was suggested by your landlord) that you might come down with a gun or a knife (you wouldn't actually do that - would you?) and then where would we be.  Perhaps may I suggest you invest in a very thick rug or perhaps you could work Friday and Saturday evenings or even you could could join us next year.  We  are always looking for players and we practice at Alway school starting in April.  Just come up for a run around but tell us who you are (just say ninety-nine).

Yours Sincerely (I do go on and on)
Bill Stuart
President
Grimsby Gentlemen RFC

Ode to a Tighthead Prop

Ode to a Tighthead Prop

Author unknown

It was midway through the season
we were just outside the four
and although I know we won it
I can't recall the score.

But there's one thing I remember
and to me it says a lot
about the men who front the scrum -
the men we call "the props".

We won a lineout near half way
the backs went on a run
the flankers quickly ripped the ball
and second phase was won.

Another back then crashed it up
and drove towards the line
another maul was duly set
to attack it one more time.

The forwards pushed and rolled that maul
They got tough set the ball up to a tee
the last man in played tight head prop
and wore the number "3"

The ball was pushed in to his hands
he held it like a beer
then simply dropped to score the try -
his first in 15 years.

Then later, once the game was done
he sat amidst his team
he led the song and called himself
the try scoring machine.

But it wasn't till the night wore on
that the truth was finally told
just two beers in, he'd scored the try
and also kicked the goal.

At 6 o'clock the try was scored
by barging through their pack
he carried two men as he scored
while stepping 'round a back.

By seven he'd run twenty yards
out sprinting their quick men
then beat the last line of defence
with a "Jonah Lomu" fend.

By eight he'd run from near half way
and thrown a cut out pass
then looped around and run again
no-one was in his class.

By nine he'd run from end to end
his teammates stood in awe
he chipped and caught it on the full
then swan dived as he scored.

By ten he'd drunk a dozen beers
but still his eyes did glisten
as he told the story of "that try"
to anyone who'd listen.

His chest filled up, as he spoke,
his voice was filled with pride
he felt for sure he would be named
the captain of that side.

By night’s end he was by himself
still talking on his own
the club was shut, the lights were out
his mates had all gone home.

And that's why I love my front row -
they simply never stop
and why I always lend an ear
when a try's scored by a prop

Club Dinner 2011

Another typical awards dinner with dinner, awards, a man dressed in women's underwear., noise, punches, violence, table breaking , cops and visiting the Legion. At least the meal was different this time. It was  was Greek themed and excellently prepared and served  by Bob's cousin John and helped by Billy. We highly recommend them as caterers. The club would also like to thank George of Nathan's Depot Pub for letting us have our dinner there for the third year in a row.  We did not mean to cause you any problems George and will not likely be back next year.

Bob, John and Billy

The awards went well starting with the most improved player in Nick Howe.  Nick came to most practices and became a stronger prop as the year went on. Nick was unable to attend the dinner as he . 

Nick

This year we had 8 new players to senior rugby and all made a significant contribution.  Our oldest rookie was Wally at 48 years of age.  However,  a player who made a significant difference to the club by attending most practices, bought his own weighted ball, drove to Bruce all by himself and joined the executive was Brendan Sculland and he is the rookie of the year.

Mr. President and Brendan

Comeback player of the year went to James Vienneau who brought his son to flag rugby and said even though I haven't played in twenty years I can do this. And he did.

Two older guys trying to keep their eyes open

The Clubman of the year this year went to two individuals and one not even a man.  Laura and Martin grew the flag program from a dozen a couple of years ago to three dozen this year and had a very successful season in getting young kids involved..

Mr. President, Laura and Martin Van Den Hurk

Our junior player of the year was a 17 year old player in Grade 11 at Beamsville this year and came to the club to score four tries in the league at center.  Martin was not able to attend the dinner.

Martin Colyn

This year`s player of the year was Vic Blaney who got most of the man of the match awards, scored five tries (we only scored 19 in total) and played out of position to help the club.  The award was presented by Club Manager Kyle Wilson.

Kyle and Vic

This year`s Deer`s Rear award went to Alex Millar who in a fall game at home against Bruce, managed to confuse the opposition by picking up the ball in goal running it out to the one and placing it down whereupon Bruce picked it up, took it back into the goal and touched it down.  Alex's defense is that he was injured with a collapsed lung and slightly mixed up.

Mr. President with Alex

Also I forgot to announce at the dinner that we have two members on the Niagara All-Star B division team and they are Vic Blaney and Derrick Weber.

A few more pictures with no comments:

Fall League Week One: Hamilton at Home

Grimsby/St Catharines 14: Hamilton 17

Venue: Alway Field

Referee: Nick Carbone **

Weather: A lovely day for rugby.

Attendance:  A couple of hundred as there were many competing attractions on.  I guess most of the fans were on the other side of the field.

Presidents Report: Hamilton could have had a very strong side out as they won the NRU "A" division while we are at the bottom of the "B" but they had a mixture of players from their first and seconds and some old boys.  Our club which is now a combination of Grimsby and St. Catharines' players, both of which did not do real well in the "B" division, managed to make a game of it.  We did not have a lot of time to prepare as both teams had a number of players who showed up 5 minutes before kickoff or after (I mean Grimsby and St Catharines - Hamilton was ready and organized).  I showed in the first half during which Hamilton scored two tries and converted one.  To be fair Hamilton did have the wind advantage.  In the second half we score early as  Kevin Haner  smartly? hung off a 5 meter ruck and took a pop  to go over.  A longish conversion was made by Derrick Weber.  Then about twenty five minutes in Vic Blaney burst over the line to score and Derricks conversion put Lincoln (Gim/St Cath) ahead by two.  With five minutes to go an errant kick was blocked and the Hamilton winger picked up and scored to make it a disappointing loss (for us) and a disappointing win for Hamilton who thought they should have done much better.

A classic eight pick up by Kyle, supported by Dean and Martin

Team: 1. Jon Millington, 2. Brendan Sculland, 3. Kevin Haner, 4. Jeremy Young, 5. Bob Mavro, 6. Martin Van Der Hurk, 7. Dean  Crosier, 8. Kyle Wilson, 9. Jeff Innis (only wanted a few minutes), 10. Derrick Weber, 11. Setphan Johnson, 12. Vic Blaney, 13. Jason Hanes, 14. Alex Millar, 15. A. Nother

Ryan Coens went on for Milli, Wally Cone went on for Bob, Kyle McLean went on for Martin, Dirk Riechow went on for Jeremy and Mike Cuthbertson went on for Alex Millar in the second half.
Captain's Report : It was a rough game with a lot of pushing a shoving and some dirty play which  needs to be sorted out.  Only two yellow cards were handed out but more should have been done.  St. Catharines has made a club suspension for their player player involved. It would have been nice to have some organization at the start and be able to get everyone on the same page at practice.  Hopefully that will come. Congratulations to Mike Cuthbertson and Dirk Reichow (below) who played in their first ever rugby game.

I didn't get many action shots as the battery was low. 


Man of the match:  I don't know I wasn't paying attention, actually I was serving beer. Perhaps some of the many followers can remind me.

Lessons learned:  I think we all agree that the team regulation that was emphasized at the end of the match by Kevin that anyone over two hundred and fourty pounds should not be kicking the ball will be in effect from now on.  And anyone must get a fucking kicking licence from the coach.