Gosport & Fareham III (21) – (29) Lymington – Match Report

Mariners Make It Eleven In A Row

Gosport & Fareham III 21 – 29 Lymington Mariners

April 2nd

The following match report is based on a true story – it is comprised entirely from accounts by those that were there and therefore I as the author can make no assurances about the validity of any statements made and how closely they resemble the truth. In fact only the following three statements can be guaranteed as fact –

1. We played Gosport and Fareham away in a merit table clash
2. We won
3. Dom Ellis didn’t score

The game began with both sides making lots of mistakes. The opposition front 5 looked to be made up entirely of props which gave them a certain dominance in the scrum – apparently not helped by them being allowed to steal the drive every time before the ball even came. Bizarrely the ref took to physically holding the scrum in place so stand-in scrum half Nick Bubb could put the ball in.

Mariners were first to trouble the score board when Chris Scott-Bowden at fly half scored his first of a brace of tries in the match. Chris kindly wrote a very impartial account of his tries for me so I have decided to include them, completely unedited, in to the report. Here in his own words is the story of his first try:

“First try i took the ball from my 10 metre line and through a dummie and went through the gap then steped the full back, there winger was was running across the pitch for a covering tackle, so i dropped the shoulder and bumped him to score in the corner!” – (I don’t know what school Chris went to but I believe his parents should be asking for a refund!)

About 10-15 minutes in to the game Dom Ellis decided he needed less time on the pitch to get his maiden try by taking offence at the luminous scrumcap of one of the aforementioned front 5 and preceded to take it off his head in a bit of handbags. The ref thought he had swung a punch so gave Dom 10 mins to talk to Gosport supporters on the sidelines. When Dom told the Gosport supporters that we were missing some regular players because they were playing golf and going to ballet their comments were, “God, that’s soooo Lymington!”.

John West, playing at centre (yes for those of you that were at Southsea earlier in the season we really were that desperate) employed the boot from the Lymington 10m line which went all the way, chased by Phil Jenner. The ref blew the whistle while the ball was still rolling in play and awarded the 22m drop out denying the opportunity of a touch down.

Gosport countered well by running the ball quick and wide. A Gosport winger then made a looping break and with Jack lining him up for the tackle was shocked when Nurse West came flying in to smash him like a rogue runaway train at the crossing T-boning a car. The tackle sounded like two breezeblocks being crunched together and the resulting wreckage saw the end of the game for that winger and Jack denied of a smash. That’s now 3 bigguns’ in a row for Nurse West.

Tim Hinman then scored Lymington’s second when, following a sustained period of excellent loose play and mauling by the Mariner pack he picked up the ball and drove hard to the corner for his try.  Again the conversion was missed, 0-10 the score.

James Norris went off after 25 mins with the his recurring knee issue. A Gosport 2nd team centre was so desperate to play for us he went to prop and did a fine job.

Debutant flanker, Phil Jenner’s brother-in-law Mikey Berry was having a stormer of a game cutting swathes through the Gosport defence, breaking tackles aplenty. One good long jinking run saw him score his first for the club, converted by Chris to take the half time score to 0-17.

The second half started with Dom Ellis leaving the field to a minor injury, preserving his 100% non-scoring record.  Charlie Cutler who had had a great first half on the flank moved to second row to make way for Dom Monkhouse.

Gosport brought on more subs, two of their second team backs, one very evident wearing bright pink shorts that Jason Bolwell would have been proud to wear! Gosport bolstered their pack with more hefty lads in the second row and were completely dominant in the scrum repeatedly driving Lymington back. To their credit Lymington won a ball against the head from some good ping pong and only lost two of their own.

Gosport made started to make good use of their new backs by chinking the ball over the top in a well drilled move to be gathered by Mr. pink shorts to go over in the corner. Unfortunately Lymington had decided to have a snooze and did not chase to stop him going from the touchline to under the posts 7-17.

Pressure on Mikey Berry then made another fine cutting run to get his second, not converted 22-7.

Stuart Harvey at prop had time to do an impression of Ram Man by folding their No.10 in half with a crunching head butt style tackle to the stomach. Gosport then jinked over the top again for pink sorts to get his second, again converted 22-14

Chairman Ludlow then came on for Pete Rolfe who was struggling from the effects of a car crash the previous day. Pete had made some good penetrating runs only to be tackled each time around his injured neck which he is calling the National Accident Helpline about. Skipper Cavell then came on for his young apprentice Anthony Hoyle who was himself needing to recover after being sat on by one of the Gosport fat front 5.

Brian Hill at full back was having a good game too making one try saving tackle out wide in the first half and using his special move, for which he is so perfectly built – the prop crash ball, every time he got the ball.

Nerves of a Gosport comeback were settled when Chris scored his second. According to some witnesses it was identical to the first but this is how, in his own words again, Chris saw things:

“2nd try was in their 22 so i through another dummie, went through the gap then handed off this guy in the face to score underneath the sticks! Probably the best try of the season” (confirmation that his spelling mistakes were not an accident…..) Converting his own try the score moved to 29-14.

Gosport continued to use their backs well and broke though for one final score, converted to finish the game on Gosport 21 Lymington 29

There were a number of notable performances this week including Nick Bubb having a great game, his first as captain, and with a nasty thumb injury after just 5 minutes of play. Charlie Cutler was a rock deploying a one man Wasps style rush defence. Jason Ludlow was caused all sorts of trouble coming off his wing and running hard, creating space by taking the defence with him. Dom Ellis played but didn’t score. However ‘The Lymington Rivaaz Man of the Match’ award this week goes to Andy O’Callaghan who was apparently all over the place.

This week Lymington have two home matches back to back. The first is a vets team fixture against Southsea Nomads, kick off at 1pm. The second is a first team merit table fixture against Ryde, kick off 3pm. These will be Lymington’s last home fixtures of the season so it’s your last chance to see the guys in action and show them your support.