Atherstone 45 - 10 Old Wheatleyans
With Stade Wheats under 3 inches of the white stuff, anticipation was high that Saturday afternoon could be spent in the bar having a ‘chalk & talk’. These thoughts however did not take into consideration Atherstone’s very own micro-climate. The rural Warwickshire town had not seen a single flake of snow all week and their officials were left slightly bemused by the 20 phone calls they received on Saturday morning asking if the game was still on.
So the Wheats’ wagons set off for the 40 minute journey and arrived in plenty of time for a solid warm-up and to attempt to decipher Deano’s Excel sheet.
Atherstone are riding high at the top of the league and it soon became apparent why. They had a big, grizzly, experienced pack of forwards and some hard-running backs who stretched the Wheats defence from the kick-off.
An early Atherstone try was followed by another under the posts to give the hosts a 12-0 lead. But the Wheats lineout was working really well with Kristian rising like a giant freshwater salmon. The first bit of multi-phase play that we secured resulted in Ollie breaking through 3 tackles and outpacing the winger to score in the corner............TRY TIME!
There then followed a casual conversation on the sideline;
“So, one of the Bablake 1st XV has had England trials right? Do you think we can get him down for a game?”
“Yeah mate, that’s me.”
“Say again”
“Yeah that’s me, I had England trials”
“So what are you doing on the bench?
“Nobody asked if I was any good!”
– Mason you ******!!!”
Back to the action..............The Wheats were competing more in defence and at the breakdown now and Big Kris continued to ‘boss’ the lineout. The scrum was causing concern though and the heavier, more experienced Atherstone pack started to dominate this facet of the game.
At only one score down though, hopes were high.......................
The Atherstone fullback gathered the ball just inside his own half and kicked deep into Wheats territory. Browny then decided to treat the crowd to some proper South Coast ‘freestyle breaking’. Phat!
17-5
The second half saw changes – Beechy and Kai on, Harty and DL off.
2nd half highlights brought to you by ‘Morrisons Value Bananas’ – The Wheats Bananas of choice
· Gillam got angry and started a fight
· Haddo got a severe reprimand from the ref for looking angry 10 metres from the action. Mrs Haddo declined to comment on the matter..............but I’m sure he also got a mouthful when they got home
· Kai secured more turnovers in the first 10 minutes than the Wheats had done in the entire first half
· Bobby’s kicking out of hand was a treat
· Atherstone scored 4 more converted tries in the second half
· The Wheats pack powered over from a lineout 5 metres out......................TRY TIME!
· Deano stripped off ready for a ten minute cameo at the end – someone had to show the team how it should be done.
· Deano put his tracksuit back on because it was too cold
So the match finished with the score 45-10 in favour of the home side.
A hard fought game and great credit to the ‘Wheats 18’ who never gave up, continued to fight until the final whistle and did the shirt proud.
Chairman’s Man of the Match was awarded to Ollie Millerchip for a great defensive display, hard running and a well taken try – do you agree? Vote on Facebook. The nominations are:
Ollie – as above
Big Kris – imperious in the lineout
Josh – showed good gas on the rare opportunities he got
Si Hodge – a real gritty performance and some great claret
Dick of the Day nominations:
Browny & Haddo – the perfect way not to execute a 2 on 1 – a back heel and a tip over the bar in to touch
Kai – step aside Mr Betts there’s a new piece in town
Gillam – RAGE
Mason – selection..................awesome
We wish Atherstone best of luck in their fight for promotion this year.
Thanks to all Wheats who made their debut on Saturday – see you next weekend.
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