Mavericks and Misfits

Mavericks and misfits

On a Saturday afternoon blessed with a clear blue sky and a big yellow mass of gases omitting a warmth that would be better suited to a beach bar the mavericks assembled to take on the home troupes of Old Parkonians in their Oxton setting.

With both the Gaffer and team captain of on a jolly shopping experience at Liverpool one the responsibility of the team was left to Pat and Nev in the respective rolls.

A team made up from families (Elwell trio and guest Andy Higgins) player's coming back from injury or just plain injured and a mix of stalwarts and a rookie in Josh took to the field to receive the opening ko. The silent hero that is Mike Potter cleanly secured the ball and went to ground and so a day of huffing and puffing began in the 26 c heat.
After a few changes of possession and a penalty littered first half Billy Alderson opened the scoring with Andy Higgins narrowly missing the extras. It wasn't long before Parks hit back with a try to level at 5-5.
Parkonians where to go ahead for the first and only time when poor tackling and our right flank was left exposed.
They converted the score an lead 12-5 at the break.

The team talk was given and it was agreed that we had not made use of the speed guy's out wide as we were all a bit bunched up at the play the ball from rucks.
So this seemed to work well now getting the ball down the line and exploiting the Park's defence against the speed from the young Elwells Christian McIvor and Billy who got anselmians 3s and his second score of the day, the play starting when Pat staying on his feet ripped the ball from the ruck and played it out to Eddie brown, Del, Campbell, chistrian finally Billy to score .Andy tagged the convention to even up the score board.

A welcome sight ten minutes into the second half was the sight of Kel Friday coming down from the changing rooms. He replaced Pat a loosehead who had defied the specialist orders to not play this side of Christmas having had surgery on a detached rotator cuff. His shoulder held up but a pulled sphincter muscle proved more annoying than campbell's voice did to the ref who gave him a spell of ten minutes on the side lines to top up his tan and reflect on his vocal skills. Whilst down a man from an penalty at the 5 metre line the power house Kel crashed over the line to give the Mavs the lead back. 17-12 mavericks.
Parks faltered in the heat and under the pace with Cam (back from the bin) he turned to feed Andy Higgins into score and increase the lead to 22-12. Then the final nail in the coffin was again the pace of the backs Del to cam to Billy and onto Chris McIvor to score untouched and Andy slotting to conversation for a well deserved 29-12 victory.
Big shout out to the forwards who had to spend a large portion of the day with their heads down and arses up in the scrums and to the backs for their great adjustments at the interval. Welcome to josh who got ten minutes at end and on his first tackle stood up there big forward on the spot. To Christian and his boy's (shame he hadn't had more kids lol). However the decisions today for man of the match were split and if a joint decision could be made then today would be it. The only thing to separate these two players and their immense contribution to the match was the fact that we don’t usually award man of the match to skippers. Two great players, both playing out of position, both incredible servants to the Maverick ethos and both responsible for keeping the back line moving and scoring points today, Del Alderson gets the nod for M.O.M. A hairs breadth away from Nev Pickard who as skipper has less chance of winning. Two great performances, two great players and two great guys. So on a day better suited for beach volleyball a great showing from the mavericks and misfits. Well played everyone.