Hoylake Match Report

So…… after a little absence from duty the Gaffer has retrieved his biro from down the back of the couch and thought he would provide some musings on the performances thus far.
The usual erudite writings for the first few weeks have been summarises so as not to bore the pants of our illustrious readers.

Week 1 v Ruskin - Plucky performances ultimately well beaten
Week 2 v Helsby - Well beaten up. Loads of injuries took a while to recover.
Week 3 v Winnington Park - Robbed by the league over referee availability. No game played opposition walk over.
Week 4 Ellesmere Port - Frustrated, very frustrated. Beaten by 2 points by a team we should have easily beaten.
Week 5 v Widnes - Now this is more like it. Mavs win 36-0. Helped massively by The Adam Bramhall twins (Adam & John). Plus some returning players from 1’s and 2’s but the duck had been well and truly broken, confidence improved we move into week 6 and an away fixture against our friends from Hoylake.

Hoylake sitting in 2nd place in the league promised to bring more stern opposition. The Gaffer bringing a strong squad of 17 players with two Mavs debutants playing alongside our ever impressive youth players.
The forward pack promised to bring some real intensity to the game with a massive immovable front row of Chris Mcgowan, Joe Roberts and Jay Holcroft supported in the engine room by the new ‘ father and son’ double act of Tom Hutchinson and the highly impressive Finn Martin.
The back row consisting of the scary Eric Mcmorine, the whirling dervish Dave Edge and our latest addition. Jack Martin who had a great game on the openside. Overall the pack were not in the mood to be pushed over this week and so it proved with a totally dominant scrum and maul which saw the opposition fail on every occasion to make ground by sticking the ball up the jumper. The dominance of the pack forces Hoylake to play right into our hands and try and spin the ball out. It was at this stage the backs were lying in wait.
Ian Marshall and Dan Jenner at 9 and 10 respectively launching the attacks and defending the first receivers provided an impenetrable defence close in, with the ever reliable Captain Fantastic Andy Smith and Jack Hancock working in tandem to snuff out any potential attacks from the Hoylake midfield. Cristian Mcivor and a young Dave Edge (jnr) stopping anything coming round the outside. Finally the man of the match Tom ‘smooth as silk’ Campbell at 15 who cleared up everything at the back and even got over the whitewash for a well taken try leaving the opposition fullback with a succinct little “not today mate” message to take home with him.
The game itself was a text book display of what can happen when you stick to the game plan and play to our strengths. Keep the ball, use the backs use runners off 10 and we’ll score points, and that’s exactly what we did . We laid the ground rules early on with two well taken tries in the first 15 minutes, this had the effect of stopping Hoylake in their tracks.
The first try was after a great defensive read of a rush defence, with the fly half recovering the ball shaping to pass and placing a deft, outside of the foot, chip over the top for the outisde backs to chase on to, then several phases ensued, with powerful forward work, with Hancock scoring near the posts and converted and quickly followed by a second try this time from Scary Eric who stepped up with a typically abrasive run taking four of the Hoylake squad with him as he crashed over to make it 14-0. These two tries had the desired effect of knocking the wind out of the Hoylake team and you could visible see their heads drop after 15 minutes. The Mavs switched into ruthless gear and upped the tempo. It was then Tom Campbells turn to crash over through a defensive line who thought they could stop him, but not this time and not today.
The fourth try came courtesy of the geriatric department with Nev Pickard running in support keeping possession of the ball after despairing tackles from the Hoylake defence and diving over to the right of the posts.
So together with a penalty a piece meant the half time score was 31-3 in favour of the impressive Mavericks squad.
The second half began much in the same way as the first half ended with The Mavs in the front foot causing Hoylake all kinds of challenges in both the set piece loose. However, this time the decisions weee not going the way of The Mavs and following a brief sojourn into the Mavs 22 a penalty try was awarded as a result of alleged indiscretions by the Mavs defensive line.
However it did t take long for the Mavs to correct the wrongs with tries piling up from new signing Jack Martin, a destructive midfield break from Dave Edge (snr) running straight through the Hoylake line and finally a try from Captain Fantastic breaking blind to score in the corner making the final score 52 - 10 and a convincing performance resulting in a convincing win taking the Mavs to mid table with a fixture against bottom of the table Oswestry still to come.
A massive welcome to Jack Martin who played his first Anselmian game this week for the Mavs, produced a blistering performance, scored a try, and even managed to stay on the beer afterwards. Although to be fair, Jack doesn’t have a dog that needs babysitting so that’d probably explain it. !!
This weeks players of note must go to the ever improving Eric on the blindside, Finn Martin producing great performances well in week out in the second row.
Dave Edge playing at both Number 8 and in the centres providing thundering tackles and destructive running lines. A final thanks must go to Ian who joined us this week from Shotton, hopefully the first of many performances in a Mavs shirt.
However we have to award a joint prize for this weeks dick of the day, firstly our criminologist who knows when his head has been trodden on and when it hasn’t step forward Mr. Eric Mcmorine and secondly for far too many indiscretion Captain Fantastic Mr Andy Smith, cheering like a schoolgirl when they missed a penalty kick, congratulations to the pair of you, great work.
As we already have heard this weeks man of the match as voted for by The Gaffer, Hoylake team and most importantly Mrs Skip and and the majority of the Hoylake women, step forward Tom Campbell.
Great performances all round, a great squad effort and most importantly the first sign this week of the Mavs spirit back in action.

Semel a Mavericus, Semper a Mavericus,
The Gaffer