Fine win for The Mavericks

Helsby put to the sword

Saturday 3rd February was a good day to be a Maverick, a strong powerful and mobile squad assembled at the Helsby ground in the shadow of Helsby Hill. The Gaffer was in confident mood with the welcome addition of James Worrall, Ollie Loveday and the wrecking ball that is Mark Petterson into the team. The afternoon promised to be an eventful one, and so it proved to be.
Pre-kick off and the Helsby team looked strong and confident in their warm ups with a large mobile looking pack and an aggressive set of backs. However as we all know looks can be deceptive.
From receiving the kick off to the final clearance of the game The Mavericks had this one by the scruff of the neck and although on occasions there were some novel interpretations of the rules by the referee it was the free running, free scrummaging and big hitting Mavs that played the conditions best. In total the Mavs scores 8 tries with 6 conversions going between the sticks.
Try scorers were Petto and James with a brace apiece with Nev, Les, Jack and , captain Marvel Andy Smith.
James ‘The Boot’ Worrall was responsible for pinning Helsby into their 22 for the vast majority of the day with very few sojourns into the opposite direction by the Helsby 15.
The game kicked off with The Mavericks receiving the ball into their 22 and following a brief testing out of each of the packs the ball was given to James who kicked and found touch deep into the opposition half and the wind took over the line outs to result in a not-straight call and a scrum to The Mavs. It was at this stage of the game that we began to see the true strength of The Mavs forward dominance which set the tone for the afternoon. A forward moving scrum buckled the Helsby pack and clean ball was passed out to the backs. With ball in hand to James, Petto, ,Ollie, Billy,Del and Kev...... carnage ensued.
A bit (but not much) compassion must be expressed towards the Helsby 10 who’s first introduction to James was an attempted head on tackle to be subsequently bounced backwards 10 yards and left with a distinct question in his mind along the lines of “Play rugby they said, it’ll be fun they said” as he lay in the foetal position in a crumpled heap on the ground. Essentially job done and the tries followed.
The forwards played with complete domination at rucks, mauls and scrums showing their continued level of improvement in performance. The principle difference between this weeks performances and those that have gone before was we finished well. For all the territory and possession of previous weeks we have always fell short in getting over the whitewash, this week we corrected that and the forward momentum supplied allowed for some well worked tries and determined running.
Noticeable performances this week once again go to the forward unit and in particular Andy Barker who had an outstanding game winning linen-outs, scrummaging and rucking well together with some excellent line breaks in the middle of the park. Due to the unique skills shown today I am taking the rather unusual stance of naming TWO men of the match Andy Barker for the forwards and James Worrall for the backs. James strong running, great kicking and game management plus his two tries sets him up for the award. Jack Liddell continues to impress with some dynamic running with ball in hand and a strong performance resulting in one of the tries.
My comedy high points of the game were all supplied by Helsby team who provided some comedy moments as follows:-
1. At the conversion of the first try James missed the kick and was subsequently ridiculed by the Helsby 13, he would later rue the decision to try a ‘wind up’
2. The comedy comments passed about our very own Wurzle Gummidge Nev Pickard. A nick name that may truly stick.
3. The Helsby prop taking the Micky out of Craig Brookes on the side line for not playing, ten minutes before Craig came on and subsequently turned him upside down and inside out before forcing uncontested scrummaging for the last 10. Thanks guys some excellent comments in the face of adversity.
A fantastic performance chaps that was due and long awaited. A great team performance with some great individual skills.

Semel a Mavericus, Semper a Mavericus