4th Team

Manchester 35 - Sandbach 10 Sat 12 March 2005 Ah well , the Jinx returns from his hols and even though I wasnt playing I still managed a loss , ho hum ! With a last minute emergency text to all and sundry I managed to travel with 16 players to Manchester yesterday for a gripping encounter. Thanks to young Ged ,John Shaw, Sam Howard and Andy Lee for stepping up at the last to give us a team . Having been informed Friday night that manchester for reasons even now that are a mystery to me wanted a 3pm kick off. I also doubt very much that they requested this friday night either but thats when I was told , getting used to this . Anyway on arrival there was no one from Manchester available to talk to us or assist us in any way so we found a changing room and got on with it . We then found a pitch and again got on with it . Then a ref turned up who was as clueless as we were . Eventually at half 2 ish we found some opposition and got on with it . They were as intrigued as us about the 3pm kick off .Anyway off we went straight into what seemed like a scene from a Rocky film fists were flying blood was being spilt and people were being sin binned almost immediately (Gavin) . Yes our resident curate only remained on the pitch for ten minutes before issuing some well placed punches to some blaggard who had got in his way , 7 punches to be exact and all good uns . Ah the clergy bless em . To say the first fifteen minutes were feisty was an understatement with each side fluffiing its feathers and peacocking around the pitch trying to be the hardest . Even Keith Jones on the sideline came nose to nose with the touch judge and some choice words were exchanged . Indeed the referee even had occasion to speak to Mr Jones and officially warned him that the words he used were incitement to riot and to cease forthwith . What a giggle .Now as well as all this there was a bit of rugby being played and good hard rugby it was. exceedingly good to watch and a very 50/50 affair . That was until Manchesters first try. Now this has to rank amongst one of the most disgusting , despicable and incompetent refereeing decsions ever seen on a rugby pitch . The Manchester centre managed a nice little run from the five yard line and forced his way over the line . however a nicely timed tackle from someone on the sandbach side turned the player on his back he in turn landed on his back clutching the ball to his chest , at which point Andy Lee took it from him and began a clearing move. The next thing TRY GIVEN . The referee was in no position to see , Manchester did not even appeal for the try . The touch judge was stood right next to me and was pefectly placed . He however had all the integrity of a serial killer and just stated "Live with it " Absolutely outrageous I make no apologies for this outburst the ref was incompetent and out of order. This did not get the lads too upset and they did continue and indeed fired their game up quite considerably . They spent the rest of the half camped on the opposing 22 . What lost us the game yesterday was the silly little ball handling errors . It was one of these that led to manchesters second try , which was a fair cop . A mistimed pass from the greens led one of their men on a virtually unchallenged run to score . I will not say too much about the player that ran alongside this man all the way to the try line without making any effort to stop him cos we all know hes a great player and is getting a little sensistive about it all , eh Rick. Straight from this it was back to the twenty 22 where we once again set up camp. All credit to the reds they stopped attack after attack from the greens . The majority of these were masterminded by Rob Astbury who went on some blinding solo runs and really dragged in the defence . But despite this the greens could not find a way through . Andy Lee also proved his worth in the same way looking like a thin Martin Lee with some powerful runs . Thanks Andy you helped out enormously. Then came the moment that stopped Rick Jones from being the victim of much urine extraction . Their full back tried to clear and Rick caught a difficult ball with a tackler bearing down and managed to side step lovely to counter attack , he then laid a lovely pass to sibling Ed who took the ball over the line for our first points of the game and put us back in contention . John Shaw joining us from the 2's as full back attempted to convert. hmmm Lads just because someone comes from the 2's doesnt mean they can do everything , John is clearly no kicker and even our old stalwart Beders would have been preferable. Nice try John and Thanks for truning out , every other aspect of your game was excellent with some crunching tackles , thanks again. The score remained thus until the half time whistle . A good half time brief from Billy Poole and lads seemed up for it . One criticism though guys that Billy touched upon . we are a team of 15 geezers and the half time break is there for us to get our heads together , not to mince about in little groups doing your own thing when the pack leader has some thing to say we gather round and listen its not hard guys .The second half started very badly indeed with with two very quick tries from Manchester as Sandbach appeared to be asleep . It took these points to give the Greens the kick in the slats they needed and once again they took the game back to Manchester. This all proved to little to late the deficit at this time proved unrecoverable. One of their players proved very unsportmanlike when he took the ball over for what would have been his third try he then passed it to someone else and mocked " you score this one" It wouldnt have been so bad if it had been a good try well worked but it wasnt it was again a Sandbach error . That sort of behaviour could be done without . Sandbach's retaliation came in the form of a great solo effort by Andy Lee who thundered over the line dragging most of manchester with him . Again for some reason John Shaw Kicked . Perhaps because Carey was out. Having had a great first half Carey then decided to punch someone and in doing so hurt himself and ended up taping his fingers up . He himself will tell you he did not really figure in the second half . Honourable mentions this week to Gavin , Billy , Rob and Sam Howard who all played exceptionally well Sam managed some lovely jinking runs but just never somehow managed to get over the line . Mention also to Paul in the second row lots of tenacity there Paul and good forward play well done . Iwill not harp on today we did not lose this game because we came up against a better team , far from it we lost due to silly errors and ball handling. The team played well and did everything right everyone gave their all and should take a lot of positive things from the game to Heaton Moor next week , hopefully we will find a more gentlemanly group of people there who enjoy rugby as we do . Well done to all the boys you all played well and should be happy with what you did Sandbach were M.Avis , Wheebs , Dave Pipe , Vinny , Paul standring , gavin , Pooley , Andy Lee , Ged , Smithy , Jones boys , Carey , Sam Howard , John Shaw , Howeller One more thing Chris Howell you have been fined a jug by everyone . It is not couth or sportsmanlike for the boys to go out to warm up only to return for a huddle to find that you have been smoking in the changing room , consider yourself bollocked . we expect the jug at your next meeting Travelling support, Cho Chones , Keith Jones , Barbara Jones , Sue Waring , Jas and Michelle Prout