What's the score ??

This weeks game against Oldershaw promised to be a close run thing as pre match form had The Mavericks ahead in the league on points difference only, and so it proved to be. Both teams took to the field with a strong looking team. The Mavericks had, despite all the odds, managed to field a full team with a few subs thanks to the sterling efforts of Nev throughout the week. At ten o'clock on the Saturday morning there was a distinct possibility that the game may be in doubt as between the seconds and ourselves we were mustering about 25 players in total.
However, come three o'clock all that was behind us and we took to the pitch with about 20 players in our ranks. At this stage of proceedings the author would like to pass on special mention to Ged Smith, Mike Potter and Nico, who despite having turned up for The Mavs actually ended up playing for Glossop third team against our seconds. By all accounts Ged got man of the match for Glossop and Mike had the unenviable task of propping against Steve Pilgrim (not something to be undertaken lightly !)Nico also put up a sterling shift on the wing and did The Mavs proud, so thanks guys for your efforts.
Anyway, onward and upward and anyone thinking this was going to be a close game got it absolutely spot on, a half time score of Oldershaw 3 Mavericks 0 summed up the proceedings. Two noticable incidents during the first half, both adversely affected by refereeing decisions was the alleged 'forward pass' from Dan to Andy Smithwhen clear through to the line and the second when Captain Tim crossed the line from five metres taking a few Oldershaw players with him and having it ruled as held up. The first half was played predominantly between The two twenty two yard lines with occasional forays into each others 'red zone'. However half time came and went with the score at 3-0.
Come the second half come a different game all together with seven tries going in followed by two conversions or rather that is what the two captains decided it was by the end post match discussions. Oldershaw were first to cross with a well worked try giving their winger an overlap to exploit. A conversion made it 10-0 to Oldershaw, and to be fair at this stage Captain Tim will confess to a pang of concern, however he was not to worry as cometh the hour cometh the man. Despite all the grief Andy Smith receives from his team mates there is one thing we can all agree on he is regularly on the score sheet and frequently gets us out of trouble when we find ourselves on the back foot, and so he came up trumps again, running in support to claim The Mavericks first try of the afternoon, 10-5 and Mavericks on the front foot again. Five minutes later and it was Lukes turn as 'Superman' as he was christened by the opposition, crossed the line after some very effective running from what appeared to be his own half. 10-10 and conversion to come. Unfortunately we did not have our kicking boots with us today , despite the best efforts of Scotty ,Andy and Dan.
Oldershaw then came back at us and went over again to take the score to 17-10. a game of try tit for tat then ensued with Andy Smith going over for his second, Oldershaw again with The Mavericks having the final word with a well worked combination from Luke who fed Dan to dive over Ashtonesque style in the corner.
A hard game which the Mavericks were well capable of winning and could have done given slightly more opportunity, however thanks for all the effort once again as strong defense and strong running in attack made it a very close game.
DAMN !!!! I tried my best to get through this report without mentioning the ref, but unfortunately I can't sorry. We were presented with an old friend Dave Sixsmith as our ref today and despite an ok performance his complete lack of interaction with players of either team before or after the game created a confusion at the end of the game where by the score was left open to interpretation, no studs were checked pre match, no team discussion took place and as such his eagerness to leave the field of play as soon as possible left some confusion at the end of the game as to the final score. Tim and Si eventually came up with the score despite considering every eventuality from a home win, draw and away win, eventually settling on the latter.
Well done Oldershaw and we look forward to the return fixture in a few months.