Morpeth Reivers 3 - 77 Percy Park Lions
It's great when a plan comes together . Saturday 24th September 2016 will be remembered as the day a very very very cunning plan was devised and executed superbly . It was a plan as cunning as a fox what used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University but has moved on and is now working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning . In short , travel to Morpeth with 13 players , lure the opposition into a false sense of security , get the coach dressed into a playing kit to make 14 players , continually switch players from forwards to backs , backs to forwards , have your 9 who's never played 9 playing 15 as well , permanent open side winger coming into the line outs , and anything else we fancied doing because today was the day of 'The Incredible Plan ' .
After the warm up , 'the Magnificent 14' , returned to the dressing room for one last hurrah from the skipper before the battle commenced . There was a calm confident feeling in the room , a togetherness , a belief , a determination that they were actually going to pull this off . Captain Lenahan called his troops to attention , they locked arms , squeezed tightly into a circle and listened intently to their leader . Now there have been some very famous speeches over the years , Martin Luther King , Winston Churchill , Enoch Powell , Chris Elliot at Guisbrough last season , but none of them have been as inspiring as that of Canadian Lenahan . Imagine Olivier , but with a Canadian accent , and the famous King Henry V speech . 'Once more into the breach , dear friends , once more .............I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips , straining upon the start . The game's afoot : follow your spirit , and upon this charge cry 'God forJoba , The Lions and Percy Park '. The crescendo that greeted that rallying call could be heard for miles , and out marched the brave 13 and one crazy old fool to commence battle .
Unfortunately , I forgot to tuck my notebook and pen into my sock so I don't have any actual notes of how the game unfolded , other than the first few minutes . The rest is unfortunately a bit of a blur as I gasped for oxygen and hoped that the final whistle would surely blow . The Reivers started the brighter of the two sides . It didn't take too long before their 10 tried to test out the pensioner on the wing with a garyowen . But Jobson Senior showed he had lost none of his quality despite the advancing years , as he rose like a salmon to take the high bomb and then deliver a perfect 20 yard pass to the on rushing Grove who sped away down the right wing deep into enemy territory . So effective had that threat been dealt with , it was the only time Morpeth would look to exploit that perceived weakness . 10 minutes into the game and Morpeth , who incidentally were kicking up the slope on the second team pitch with the 1stxv pitch being used by the colts , took the lead . A straightforward penalty with the Park backs adjudged offside . From then on , in truth , there was only one team in it , well not a complete team but you know what I mean .
In total The Lions crossed the line 11 times , sensationally , all 11 were converted by Mark Owen !! Some of Parks try's were the result of good pressure in defence , resulting in turnovers then counter attacking . But all included a few phases , good handling , then great line breaks followed by great support . As the points rattled up , one or two players became a little selfish , understandable , but I don't appreciate being used as a decoy and had Blackburn and Lenahan actually passed the ball to me I would have undoubtedly scored . There is nothing worse than standing there like a pineapple or is it a lemon ? , and not getting in on the action !! Those fortunate to have been passed the ball and subsequently score were ; Grove , Blackburn x2 , Danilli , Spowart , Newstead x3 , Lenahan x3 , with Spowart the kicker in red hot form . Final score 77-3 . The two x3 try scores were at the heart of everything we did , they were our line breakers our finishers . Young Newstead was quite outstanding , this young ASCE Falcon has a very bright future ahead of him me thinks .
Yesterday was a great day to be part of a group of lads , who just gave it a go , played for each other , and thoroughly enjoyed doing so . If you have belief in yourself and those around you , you can achieve great things , nothing is impossible .
The Magnificent 14 ; Caulfield , Danilli , Blackburn , Spowart , Grove , Newstead , Hennessey , Sanderson , Saint , Dryden , Reekie , Lenahan , Nairn and Jobson Snr .