All Hale the Ale!

As a bit of a last minute fixture we agreed to host Chester B in the comfort of the knowledge that their A team were due to play Lymm. Due to the biblical rain fall recently the Lymm game was postponed and so we hosted a mixture of Chester’s B team with a sprinkling of A teamers for good luck.

The list of absentees included Sean (shoulder), Big G (knee) George (vomit) and Louis (hockey match!?). So the scene was set to mix things up a bit, try out some new positions and blood some of the newer players.

The starting line up was Arrold, Donny and Stef on the front row, The Niallator and Macerz in the engine room, Karlos, Tay and Harv on the back row, Twigs at 9, Hensy at 10, Joe and Reece in the centre and Ben, Conor and Tom in the back three. Due to the wet ground we had moved pitches from Twickenham to the partly submerged and very sloping old fourth team pitch. Wirral started off playing up-stream and the first quarter was incredibly close fought by both teams. Wirral made a number of breaks but with the support finding it difficult to keep pace in the mud they couldn’t make the breaks count. Both teams defended well and the quarter ended without a score.

With no changes to the line-up we went off again, downstream this time. Wirral improved their support and managed to string together a number of phases with Ben making a break down the right wing, eventually being caught 15 metres out, stayed on his feet and offloaded to Stef (beautiful British name meaning “barges through 5 tackles”) who barged through 5 tackles to dive over and make his first score in the Wirral colours. Nice to see the list of Forwards try-scorers growing.

The second half saw a number of changes with Jacko and Skips joining the front row, Slasher and Matty in the second row, Dave, Morgs and Greggo on the back row, Woodsy on at 10, new Tom daybooing at outside centre, Jamie on his usual left wing and Ste making his come back at full back. Wirral managed to get into a bit more of a rhythm, possibly as the Chester players tired in the heavy ground, and tries were run in from Woodsy, Jamie and Ste.

Points of interest were:
- Great line-out throwing from Donny
- Hard work from The Niallator
- More breaks from Stef
- Huge tackle from Karlos
- Crunching tackles from Harv
- Twigs managed to remain focussed for the hour
- Loads of turnovers from Joe and a try-saving tap tackle
- Solid performance from Reece in his daybooooo at Centre
- Ben stayed on for more than his usual seven minutes
- Big tackles from Tom
- Dave returns to form with a nose bleed
- Jamie got his mojo back
- New Tom did a good job a centre

Solid performances from all players in difficult conditions. A huge thanks to Tim, Jonny and the Chester players for what was great game, particularly close in the first half and played in a great spirit. Thanks to Moggy for reffing although I suspect the groundsman will make an additional charge for repairing the particularly muddy patch in the centre of the pitch.

Is your dad proud of you, son? Has he ever said so?