Back
Sat 27 Nov 2021 · NOWIRUL Widnes Coaches Ltd Division 5 West
Port Sunlight 2nd XV
3rd XV "Mavericks"
TBC
Mavericks v Port Sunlight
Tim Woodward7 Dec 2021 - 15:27
Share via
Sun shines at Sunlight
After a while the superlatives associate with this group of players runs a little thin I’ve used them that often. Todays game against Port Sunlight gave us a chance to be a little more creative and show a little more individual flair and as a spectator it was an absolute joy to watch.
Before we discuss the game it’s important to thank Chris and all the lads at Port Sunlight. The easier option for this week would have been for them to concede. 10 mins before kick off they had 6 players and were playing top of the league who, the previous week, had put 90+ points on another local opposition, but they stuck at it and we delayed kick off by 15 minutes to allow additional players to be found. Eventually 12 took the field and supported by the two players supplied by The Mavs the game could get underway. The pre-match warm up had served the Mavs well and we were all ready to stretch the opposition and challenge their fitness. Stocky making a welcome return for Sunlight and Cal Peers and Matty Cubbin all faced the Maverick onslaught from the first whistle .
The scores came thick and fast in the opening 20 mins with our first coming from our new big South African Clint who out sprinted and out smashed the opposition defensive line to score out wide(ish) Gordon missed the subsequent conversion, hence the .. ish. Fortunately Gordon made up for it in great style when he went over for his own try following some slick handling and passing which set him loose to score and subsequently convert his own try. The mantle was then handed over to the big lads with Tom Hutchinson crashing over from close in, but then again, no one is stopping Tom from that range. Now as an extreme honour and a privilege not afforded to any upto now we pause in the commentary to make note of one of the worthy and long suffering wives on the touchline.
Now Ali Hutchinson (Mrs Tom) turns up on a Saturday afternoon with two key jobs to perform as a Mrs Mav the first is to watch the game and cheer dutifully on the very few occasions that her husband, father of her children and the love of her life scores his immense try, the second job she has is to occasionally keep track of her children and future Mavericks. Now the Gaffer being an understanding and chivalrous kind of chap would never cast aspersions however all I’ll say is that Ali’s current record is 0 from 2 in the employment stakes. Better luck next week Ali.
Anyway, back to the thing , Shortly after Tom scored (totally ignored by his wife) a penalty awarded 10 metres out gave Chris Ford the opportunity to literally smash into the opposition defensive line and take half of them with him to score a tropically ‘chris type’ try. 24-0 the score and the Mavs were cruising.
It was this stage that Sunlight reminded us that this wasn’t a foregone conclusion and that they could present a threat and their big 8 went blind to show impressive speed and strength to skip last Fenners and score in the corner to make the score 24-5 and the fight back could start. Once again cometh the hour and cometh the man. Jack Hancock decided that the Sunlight team were being a bit cheeky and deserved to be knocked down a peg. What a way to do it though Jack with a cost to coast try running a fabulous line of Gordon Rogers to outsprint the entire Sunlight team, run the full length and score between the posts . The Oxygen tent was quickly assembled and supplies were provided then dismantled again and play resumed.
So to score one worldy try would be enough for most individuals but oh no, not for Mr. Marvellous , Jack thought he’d give it another go ….. you know , because he can. So the jinking and side stepping continued and Jack scores his second. The score now sitting quite admirably at 38-5 when Taylor thinks to himself well whatever Jack can do, I can do better. Well, if not better as equally good as. The ball is once again spun wide and Tay playing centre gets the ball steps inside and eludes the despairing defensive tackles of The Sunlight cover to cross the whitewash and take us to 43-5. The final act of the half was to come from Mighty Mouse Joe Roberts who after a disgraceful incident of football related shenanigans mad up for it with a little dart to cross over for his debut Mavs try and to say he was a little chuffed would be an understatement. Welcome to the try fest young chap !
Half time arrives and it’s 5 - 50 in favour of The Mavs.
Second half resumes and after a shift of players and McGowan passed over to the opposition (potentially massive mistake) the Sunlight scrum starts to move forward, our front row starts to suffer and within five minutes the Sunlight team secures their second try of the game once again thanks to their big running number 8.
Now the Mavs, not ones to buckle under a big of pressure turned on the style and quickly responded with some point accumulation of our own. Big Clint Van Fluffy earns a well deserved second and even managed to bag himself a big number 8 in the process so a win win all round really taking us to 57 points before our new second row, the mighty Nick Moore grabbed his before Tay finished off taking us to 69-12.
Now, the final try of the day deserves special mention. At the end of the day their are players whom make a real difference to a squad and players who can lead from the front and take decisive action in scoring tries, our final try was such an example of that .
The ball gets going out to the backs Gordon ships it to Jack who sidesteps, jinks, changes direction in a telephone box and scampers for the line beating six sunlight players Jack does all the hard work crosses the line and momentarily is distracted by a crying baby on the touchline I think it was or it was some other such melancholy wailing from the distance anyway, after all Jacks efforts and skill he offloads it to some other supporting player who ends up scoring. But, we’ll done Jack on the sterling effort you made in securing the last try it rounded the day off perfectly, even if was someone else who fell over to score.
Special mentions of the day time .
Firstly once again the backs and forwards interchanged beautifully, the I replay was a joy to behold. Mention must go to Joe Roberts who not only achieved his debut yet but also achieved Twat of the Match as well, now that’s what I call an achievement.
A special mention must go to all those who put on The shirt of Port Sunlight to ensure this game happened. I mentioned post match how this is a personal hatred of mine to have to ask Anselmians to don another shirt. This is not what you pay your subs to do, this is not where you swear you allegiances and this is not what you are an Anselmian for. But I really thank you for stepping up when it counted.
As a special note this weeks Man of the Match goes to our new Mr Big Clint Van ‘Fluffy’ his two tries and presence both on the wing and around the park was a real joy to watch. The tequilas he bought me in the bar after the game had absolutely no bearing on the outcome I promise ‘hic’ . A great performance all round a pleasure to watch and here’s to next week at home to Prenton.
Semel a Mavericus Semper a Mavericus.
The Gaffer
Before we discuss the game it’s important to thank Chris and all the lads at Port Sunlight. The easier option for this week would have been for them to concede. 10 mins before kick off they had 6 players and were playing top of the league who, the previous week, had put 90+ points on another local opposition, but they stuck at it and we delayed kick off by 15 minutes to allow additional players to be found. Eventually 12 took the field and supported by the two players supplied by The Mavs the game could get underway. The pre-match warm up had served the Mavs well and we were all ready to stretch the opposition and challenge their fitness. Stocky making a welcome return for Sunlight and Cal Peers and Matty Cubbin all faced the Maverick onslaught from the first whistle .
The scores came thick and fast in the opening 20 mins with our first coming from our new big South African Clint who out sprinted and out smashed the opposition defensive line to score out wide(ish) Gordon missed the subsequent conversion, hence the .. ish. Fortunately Gordon made up for it in great style when he went over for his own try following some slick handling and passing which set him loose to score and subsequently convert his own try. The mantle was then handed over to the big lads with Tom Hutchinson crashing over from close in, but then again, no one is stopping Tom from that range. Now as an extreme honour and a privilege not afforded to any upto now we pause in the commentary to make note of one of the worthy and long suffering wives on the touchline.
Now Ali Hutchinson (Mrs Tom) turns up on a Saturday afternoon with two key jobs to perform as a Mrs Mav the first is to watch the game and cheer dutifully on the very few occasions that her husband, father of her children and the love of her life scores his immense try, the second job she has is to occasionally keep track of her children and future Mavericks. Now the Gaffer being an understanding and chivalrous kind of chap would never cast aspersions however all I’ll say is that Ali’s current record is 0 from 2 in the employment stakes. Better luck next week Ali.
Anyway, back to the thing , Shortly after Tom scored (totally ignored by his wife) a penalty awarded 10 metres out gave Chris Ford the opportunity to literally smash into the opposition defensive line and take half of them with him to score a tropically ‘chris type’ try. 24-0 the score and the Mavs were cruising.
It was this stage that Sunlight reminded us that this wasn’t a foregone conclusion and that they could present a threat and their big 8 went blind to show impressive speed and strength to skip last Fenners and score in the corner to make the score 24-5 and the fight back could start. Once again cometh the hour and cometh the man. Jack Hancock decided that the Sunlight team were being a bit cheeky and deserved to be knocked down a peg. What a way to do it though Jack with a cost to coast try running a fabulous line of Gordon Rogers to outsprint the entire Sunlight team, run the full length and score between the posts . The Oxygen tent was quickly assembled and supplies were provided then dismantled again and play resumed.
So to score one worldy try would be enough for most individuals but oh no, not for Mr. Marvellous , Jack thought he’d give it another go ….. you know , because he can. So the jinking and side stepping continued and Jack scores his second. The score now sitting quite admirably at 38-5 when Taylor thinks to himself well whatever Jack can do, I can do better. Well, if not better as equally good as. The ball is once again spun wide and Tay playing centre gets the ball steps inside and eludes the despairing defensive tackles of The Sunlight cover to cross the whitewash and take us to 43-5. The final act of the half was to come from Mighty Mouse Joe Roberts who after a disgraceful incident of football related shenanigans mad up for it with a little dart to cross over for his debut Mavs try and to say he was a little chuffed would be an understatement. Welcome to the try fest young chap !
Half time arrives and it’s 5 - 50 in favour of The Mavs.
Second half resumes and after a shift of players and McGowan passed over to the opposition (potentially massive mistake) the Sunlight scrum starts to move forward, our front row starts to suffer and within five minutes the Sunlight team secures their second try of the game once again thanks to their big running number 8.
Now the Mavs, not ones to buckle under a big of pressure turned on the style and quickly responded with some point accumulation of our own. Big Clint Van Fluffy earns a well deserved second and even managed to bag himself a big number 8 in the process so a win win all round really taking us to 57 points before our new second row, the mighty Nick Moore grabbed his before Tay finished off taking us to 69-12.
Now, the final try of the day deserves special mention. At the end of the day their are players whom make a real difference to a squad and players who can lead from the front and take decisive action in scoring tries, our final try was such an example of that .
The ball gets going out to the backs Gordon ships it to Jack who sidesteps, jinks, changes direction in a telephone box and scampers for the line beating six sunlight players Jack does all the hard work crosses the line and momentarily is distracted by a crying baby on the touchline I think it was or it was some other such melancholy wailing from the distance anyway, after all Jacks efforts and skill he offloads it to some other supporting player who ends up scoring. But, we’ll done Jack on the sterling effort you made in securing the last try it rounded the day off perfectly, even if was someone else who fell over to score.
Special mentions of the day time .
Firstly once again the backs and forwards interchanged beautifully, the I replay was a joy to behold. Mention must go to Joe Roberts who not only achieved his debut yet but also achieved Twat of the Match as well, now that’s what I call an achievement.
A special mention must go to all those who put on The shirt of Port Sunlight to ensure this game happened. I mentioned post match how this is a personal hatred of mine to have to ask Anselmians to don another shirt. This is not what you pay your subs to do, this is not where you swear you allegiances and this is not what you are an Anselmian for. But I really thank you for stepping up when it counted.
As a special note this weeks Man of the Match goes to our new Mr Big Clint Van ‘Fluffy’ his two tries and presence both on the wing and around the park was a real joy to watch. The tequilas he bought me in the bar after the game had absolutely no bearing on the outcome I promise ‘hic’ . A great performance all round a pleasure to watch and here’s to next week at home to Prenton.
Semel a Mavericus Semper a Mavericus.
The Gaffer
Further reading
Team Sponsors