Following the match last Sunday 8th February in leafy Oxton I was straight on a plane to Northern Greenland to report on the inaugural North Pole Open Invitation Arctic Animal Juggling tournament. An interesting week in which an erudite Mexican lady surprised everybody to beat the local favourite with her victorious performance juggling 3 arctic foxes and a baby seal. If you feel like attending next year’s event I would recommend staying away from the curried reindeer.
So, after a recovering from frost-bite and gastroenteritis, I need to put my finely-honed reporters mind to the more brutal activities of Sunday last in which Hoylake’s under 9s made the short trip to Oxton full of hope against a side they narrowly beat earlier in the season. The difference since the last match in mid-November is that Hoylake have seen a number of young starlets sadly hang their fledgling boots up already whilst Parkonians have been busy recruiting the cast-offs from the orc army in The Lord of the Rings. If you have seen the ‘Battle of Helms Deep’ scene from Lord of the Rings you will get an idea of what the games were like. The weather even resembled the film as it was a bleak, misty and cold day.
The first game started with Hoylake looking to put their passing game into effect but they appeared daunted by the size and superior tackling abilities of their larger opponents and spent much of the time running sideways or backwards. The result was a combination of handling errors and forward passes which the lenient referee did his best to ignore for the good of the game. However it didn’t prevent Parks from seizing every opportunity to take the turnover ball and feed their juggernaut player who was not just large but quite fast too – a future 1st XVer no doubt. Despite the heroic efforts of Rudi and James and in particular Reece whose attempted hit on the boy resembled that of two rutting stags clashing for the first time on the top of a Scottish glen. Sadly for Reece and for Hoylake it was Reece came off worst.
Parks scored four tries in the first half with just one in reply for Hoylake thanks to James who managed to shake of his nerves and his opponents efforts at tackling him to dot down and keep the Hoylake faithful’s spirits up.
Coach Kev was away playing with his toy boats so there would be no rousing, blood-coursing speech to rally the bruised troops. Nevertheless, the second half was an improvement with three tries scored by Hoylake through Leon, James and Rudi. Hoylake lost the services of Archie early on who had to go off with an injury but his team mates restricted Parks to just 3 tries. The game was full of rough and tumble and most referees may have struggled under the pressure but luckily for him he had the young Parkonians team helping him with his decisions all the while.
So the first game ended with Hoylake scoring 4 tries to Parks’ 7 but with more bruises than they could count.
Typically courageous, the Hoylake under 9s were keen to put right any perceived wrongs from the first game and went straight into the second game full of advice from coaches James and Si – “just tackle the big kid!” and “don’t panic when you have the ball”. The advice wasn’t good enough as the first half of the second game ended up with Parkonians scoring 4 tries without reply. There was plenty of endeavour from Hoylake and a number of times they got close enough to score but Parkonians’ tackling was excellent and prevented Hoylake making any inroads.

Who knows what the coaching staff said at half time, there was more arm waving by Si and James than a frantic Frenchman balancing on a tightrope. But whatever they said must have had an effect because Hoylake came out of the blocks like startled rabbits. Straight from the opening free pass James went on a run of such magnificence the Hoylake faithful nearly broke into song and it wasn’t long before Reece gave the opposition some of their own medicine by powering through from close range. This stung Parkonians into action and they went straight up the pitch to score without so much as a fingernail touching them before more strong defence prevented Hoylake from returning the favour. As Parkonians battered their way up the pitch to extend their lead further there was some heroic defence by Hoylake who turned the ball over after 7 tackles to start their own attack from their own try line. However the good work the boys do in training was on show once more as a series of passes found Reece in a yard of space, he burst through the covering tacklers and had virtually the whole pitch to cover if he was to score. He was chased down all the way and looked like he would be caught. Reece had Charlie in good support and passing to him looked like the sensible option but Reece is a determined individual and backed himself to outpace his pursuers which he duly did with the sounds of Hoylake supporters cheering his every stride! Wonderful stuff!
There was more cut and thrust as first Parkonians scored and then Rudi got in on the action when he scored after some intelligent play from Luca and George to link well together. And as the referee was berated for not keeping time accurately he made sure there was more entertainment for the large shivering crowd as Parks scored again and Rudi completed his hat-trick for the day.
And so the game ended with Parkonians winning again by 8 tries to 5 but with all Hoylake’s tries in the second half it was a fitting way to end the games with Hoylake on a high. They never gave in, they were very brave against a much bigger opposition and there is a sense that when things click Hoylake under 9s will be a real force to be reckoned with.
Training next week and I overheard James and Si muttering something in the bar afterwards about red meat diets and “more gym time” for the kids!