He’s probably right and his big shiny Range Rover is testament to that. But I don’t need to go to Blackpool to get my thrills from being flung up and down and round and round and upside down at speeds in excess of 100mph. Nope. Do you know what I do? I watch the Hoylake Under 9s on a blustery Sunday morning!
After last week’s rugby lesson, learned the hard way, it was another away game to the cleanest of venues – Port Sunlight. So the travel-hardened Hoylake faithful set their compasses and donned their orienteering clothes to find The Leverhulme Playing Fields to see how their young charges fared this week against a team largely older and bigger than them. I sensed doom.
It was a familiar story as Sunlight’s greater size and strength put them into a 3 try lead although Reece picked up where he left off last week by busting a gut to almost score for Hoylake. It wasn’t long before the commitment of the boys was rewarded with a terrific score by Sam to keep the match alive.
A particularly big Port Sunlight player was doing a lot of damage: if he wasn’t scoring he was making a huge amount of ground for his team. And if that wasn’t enough for the youngsters to contend with, imagine their surprise when the referee blew his whistle for an infringement and called for a scrum! It is testament to Hoylake that a couple of them went for it before Kev ran onto the pitch to remind the ref that it was an under 9s game not under 10s!
A scrappy period of play from both sides saw knock-ons and spilled balls but during which Sunlight managed to pile on another couple of tries. Hoylake, encouraged by the vocal travelling support, started to get to grips with their opponents though and from a restart, Archie ran through the opposition before he gleefully touched down. Some improving defence by Hoylake thanks to Luca and Paul forced a turnover to give Hoylake a chance to claw their way back into the game. And claw they did, with John brilliantly shovelling the ball to George who galloped like a crazed gazelle dodging despairing tackles to score a terrific try – and all done without his comfort-blanket scrum cap. Excellent George well done!
Port Sunlight tried to reassert their dominance but George followed up his try with a strong tackle that forced them to spill the ball. Jacob was first to react and with Archie and Sam’s help Hoylake swept up the field and so nearly scored. Although Sunlight had scored a couple more during this period of play (although Paul made a cracking tackle on one speedster but it was in vain as the player landed on the line) there were signs that the tide might be turning, especially as a training ground restart saw Reece take the ball on the run from the restart and power his way through Port Sunlight like a bowling ball smashing through the skittles at the nearby bowling alley.
Half time and Hoylake were in familiar territory, down by 7 tries to 4 but still in touching distance and finishing the half strongly.
A change of personnel at half time saw 3 changes and a team talk that consisted of praise for the brave under 9s against their older opponents – “just keep it going!” was the clarion cry. I silently wondered whether such words would be enough before reminding myself that my psychiatrist had told me not to think negative thoughts otherwise it would be “dressing-gown time” and daytime TV.
Hoylake started with the ball and wasted no time at all in mounting a fight back as James received a pass and burst his way through a number of tackles then turned on the afterburners to score a morale-boosting try from the first play of the half. Sunlight had a go at scoring but couldn’t as the tackles came thick and fast from James and Reece, so much so that they forced a turnover with which Hoylake wasted no time at all. At this point I peered over to the coaches, Kev, Si and James and each of their faces resembled what I imagine Ali Baba’s looked like when he discovered all the treasure in the cave. After months of them shouting “get the ball away from the tackle area”, Hoylake started passing the ball down the line! Everybody was involved in the next try as the ball went through several pairs of hands to end up with Archie who only needs a space as big as a mouse’s ear to score. Another Port Sunlight error forced by Charlie and George saw the ball in Hoylake’s deft little hands and a carbon copy move saw the ball thrown down the line to find Archie lurking on the wing. Running straight down the line for the corner isn’t Archie’s way, so he duly charged into as many Sunlight players as possible just to prove he can score from anywhere and through anything! All of a sudden Hoylake had drawn level and Port Sunlight started to look weary. More strong Hoylake defence saw Port Sunlight fail to score from their next attack and so Hoylake gratefully gobbled up the ball, passed it through the hands for George to score his second and put his team into the lead for the first time. By this stage the Hoylake coaches were salivating like Pavlov’s dogs at school home time.
The coaches then skilfully used the bench and started to re-introduce players who had come off at half time to replace players like Reece who had given everything for the cause. There was some good investigative running by Charlie and when Luca gave his team some go-forward momentum he passed to Archie. There was only one conclusion to this as he charged over to score his fourth and put clear daylight between the sides. And still Sunlight had no answer to a resurgent Hoylake cheered on by their adoring fans. James scored a trademark try before a shock……….Port Sunlight managed to score after some good running and support play by them saw them score in the corner. But as the clock wound down and Jacob recovered from a nasty knock to the head as he tried to stop a Sunlight offensive, another mistake meant a bobbling ball that James was onto in a flash. And like a flash he darted for the line to score Hoylake’s seventh of the half and eleventh of the game! There was no more time for any fun as the referee blew for full time and duly announced Hoylake the winners!
And so from one week to another we have seen Hoylake’s youngsters take a turgid and lacklustre display from Sefton and turn it into a heroic and astonishing performance against a side older and bigger than them. Thanks must go to the Hoylake U10s who played the Port Sunlight team beforehand to help soften them up a bit! But you see what I mean - one week you’re down and your stomach is in your trousers. The next, you’re at the top of the big dipper looking at the world beneath. Great stuff!