Winnington Park 2nds 29 – 19 Lymm Eagles

Eagles Team Match Report | Saturday April 27 2024

Eagles Fall to Winnington in Disappointing Last Match Clash

On the last Saturday of the season, Lymm Eagles suffered defeat in a frenetic match against a well drilled and fired up Winnington Park 2nd team. This was a close affair but a match where Lymm were guilty of not executing basic skills and being the architects of their own downfall.

With Buxton having conceded last week’s game, a buoyant Eagles squad travelled to Winnington Park for their last game of the season, despite not having played together for a couple of weeks. Both Captain Olly Brown, and Chief Enforcer, Rick McEvoy, did everything they could to persuade as many of the Eagles squad as possible to come along to the game. The aim was not only to give all the lads a chance of a run out in the match but also to get as many together for the legendary “End of Season Post Match Booze Up”.

This produced an almost unprecedented turnout of 23 players all of whom had played at least one other game this season. Although, this exceeded the usual maximum squad size of 20 players, Winnington Park generously agreed to a flexible approach to rolling subs which allowed two father and son combinations to play together during the match and for the more mature players plenty of breaks to adjust their surgical appliances and attend to their other medical and physical needs. The depth and breadth of experience within the Eagles squad was revealed by the 40 year age gap between the youngest and the oldest players (or 55 years if you include this scribe)!

Looking at Winnington warming up and going through their drills about half an hour before the match, it was clear that they had a well organised and very disciplined squad, all looking very smart in their training kit and with an alarming number of very youthful looking players. It also appeared that they had not one, but two coaches (what are they?) and a rather elderly, but still fully functional, water bottle and ball boy (pot calling kettle etc?).

This end of season, promotion deciding game proved to be a big draw for Winnington spectators with the wide balcony from the bar crammed with dozens of self-appointed referees and others filling the sidelines and main stand. The Eagles were overjoyed to see almost a handful of Lymm supporters, including guest appearances from former Lymm Players Andy “Nudge” Norcott and Matt Rooney as well as regulars Stu Wraith, Pete Coon and a small boy with a dog.

With little rain forecast and the massive Winnington first team pitch in great condition (the pitch was bone dry, had there been any rain in the Winnington area!), the prospects for a fast paced, easy handling game looked good. How easy it is to misread a situation !!!

From the kick off, Lymm were determined to show the home team that they meant business with crunching tackles from the forwards, Craig Capeswell, Ben Lloyd and Adam Halford, keeping the ball tight in the centre of the field and denying Winnington the opportunity to move the ball out to their fast-looking backs. As in most games this season, the Lymm pack was dominant and able to control the set pieces and gain ground by pushing back their opposite numbers.

Lymm continued to go through their usual procedure of using their forwards to grind and plough their way up the centre of the field before attempting to feed the ball through the backs and out to their speedy wingers. This approach was generally working well, but Lymm were really having to work very hard for every inch of territory. An attempt to break through the middle by strongman Max Ure was fiercely rebuffed by a double tackle from two of the larger members of the Winnington pack, which put Max firmly, and unusually, on his backside. Not an easy task.

It also became clear that the Referee was not going to allow any leeway for errors when the ball was tackled to the ground. Whether this was for holding on, not releasing the player, diving over, off feet, sealing off, not rolling away etc etc. Unfortunately Lymm, almost always seemed to be on the wrong end of his decisions. Lymm also had to cope with losing powerful number 8 Jack Harper to a calf and shoulder injury.

Fortunately, after seven minutes of attrition, veteran scrum half, Chris Kinsey gathered quick ball from the back of a powerfully moving scrum and passed it through the hands of fly half Alan Reddecliff and into the waiting hands of centre Rick McEvoy who cut inside his opposite number to scamper in for a try close to the posts. The short range conversion proved no problem for him. (0 –7).

The match continued in a very stop-start fashion with numerous stoppages for repeated infringements, resulting in the referee having to speak to Captain Brown about it. I believe that the referee may have referred to the quote from the Brazilian Author, Paul Coelho, who said that “A mistake, repeated more than once, becomes a decision” or he may have referred to Albert Einstein who is reported to have said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Either way, it was clear that Lymm were making some very bad choices or were completely insane!

Only a few minutes later after 16 minutes, Lymm suffered from another of their bad choices when Winnington slotted over an easy penalty from 25 metres out. (3 – 7).

The repeat offences seemed to have a slightly depressing effect on Lymm’s game plan, in that they seemed less inclined to compete for the ball with the same level of intensity because of the perceived risk of being penalised. Winnington quickly seized on this lull in play and on 19 minutes, poor communication in the Lymm backs opened up a gaping hole in their defence line only 10 metres out, which the opposition hooker needed no invitation to nip through and score a converted try. (10 – 14).

The Winnington coach was doing his best impression of Rassie Erasmus and seemed to have come early in his fancy dress, sporting a very fetching H2O bib (what level did he think this game was being played at?) This not only made him believe that he could wander onto the pitch at regular intervals but also question the referee and his decisions in some Neil Jenkins type behaviour. However, having been laughed at by the all the players and the referee, he appeared two minutes later in his regular coaching attire.

Clearly stung by the Winnington score, Lymm managed to regather their composure and get back to basics. The next quarter of the match became an intense physical battle, with Lymm gaining good possession but being thwarted by very hard tackling from Winnington and by the sound of the referee’s whistle with almost monotonous regularity.

Joe Rogers and Matt Grellier tried to give Lymm some much needed energy, whilst the other Lymm forwards dug deep and continued to gain ground albeit slowly. Eventually, after 39 minutes elapsed play, a fantastically planned long throw from a Lymm lineout by Olly Brown on the Winnington 25 metre line, was taken brilliantly by fly half Reddecliff, traveling at full tilt. He then sold a brilliant dummy to wrong foot the Winnington defence and dive over near the posts for a great try, converted by McEvoy (10 – 14).

The look of delight on Olly and Alan’s face was a delight, who having tried and failed several times this season to execute that move, were finally rewarded for their endeavours. According to most observers, the conversion should have signalled the end of the first half, but the referee (who may have been relying on theposition of the sun) allowed the game to restart and managed to squeeze a further 7 minutes of desperate, shirt grabbing, fly hacking, missed tackling, screaming and shouting out of both teams before putting an end to their misery.

Unfortunately during this time, a flying Winnington winger speeding down the touchdown, having rounded Reece Forrest and Dave Coon with ease, towards an almost certain try, was very strongly intercepted by an equally flying McEvoy travelling in the opposite direction. The collision resulted in the Winnington man performing an almost full 360 degree airborne summersault and was judged to be a yellow card offence, with McEvoy given his marching orders. Lymm though managed to see out the rest of the extremely long half without further score.

HALF TIME: WINNINGTON PARK 2 XV 10 – 14 LYMM EAGLES

Time for strong words at half time. Unfortunately it was clear that Lymm’s use of rolling subs at regular intervals to rest key players and try to ensure that everyone who had turned up got at least some game time, was disrupting the team’s ability to function as a competitive unit. It was decided as far as possible to maintain a core of regular forwards to secure possession but to try to open the play up to make better use of the fast backs, Liam “Sully” Sullivan and Toby Phillips who had had precious few opportunities in the first half.

Lymm took the restart with the best of intentions, but within 2 minutes found themselves camped inside their own 22m line following a full on assault from Winnington. Once again, poor communication in the backs left a loose ball spinning idly within 5 metres of the try line and Winnington only needed to pick it up and score under the posts with the conversion to follow. (17 – 14).

Following the restart, once again, the Eagles seemed to fall into a bit of a state of despondency and drop in performance which was not helped by their continued penalisation for seemingly minor infringements by the referee. When the position of play returned to inside the Lymm 22m, a sense of déjà vu and foreboding descended and on 47 minutes Winnington ran in another almost unopposed try with added conversion. (24 – 14).

Things were not going according to plan! Lymm dug deep and decided to ring the changes and bring on the few remaining unused subs in the shape of winger Ash Caffrey, flanker Jim France, veteran scrum half Martin “Henders” Henderson and young James Beards. Adam Halford and Olly Chesworth were also brought back on to provide a calming influence. The fresh legs and bodies seemed to ignite a bit of passion and enthusiasm in the squad and Lymm managed to regain their competitive edge.

Lymm were (unusually) awarded a penalty on the Winnington 10m line and chose to take it as a tap and go obviously with a view to scoring in the corner. Unfortunately, the ball was so badly handled from the pick-up and fumbled so that the subsequent pass went about 5m forward and straight into the hands of a grateful Winnington centre.

Despite a brave chase by the Lymm wings and full back, Winnington grounded the ball for an unconverted try on 55 minutes (29 – 14). The identity of the Lymm player gifting the try to Winnington remains somewhat of a mystery, but by now it probably didn’t really Macca (Oh No! Not again. Last time this season – I promise).

Despite the increasingly tired legs, bodies, minds and innumerable penalties and stoppages, Lymm were clearly not giving up. For the next 15 minutes both teams struggled to gain any sort of advantage and an increasing number of attempts were made to use long kicks to gain territorial advantage. Lymm still made good ground from strong carries by Jez and Max Ure, whilst George Harrison and Ben Lloyd were everywhere.

Around 65 minutes, sturdy winger Ash Caffrey brilliantly fielded a long kick at the touchline on the Lymm 22m and set off on a galloping run successfully barging off several attempts to tackle him out of play. Eventually pressure of numbers forced him over the touchline inside the Winnington 22m. Lymm managed to recover the ball from the ensuing lineout and made several brave attempts to get over the line.

The referee judged the first of these to be held up, whilst the next was supposedly knocked on in the act of scoring by scrum half Kinsey (although the ref only seemed to agree with that once he had consulted the Winnington players).

However, Winnington seemed unable to satisfactorily clear their line from the 5 m scrums and the powerful front row of Olly Chesworth, Craig Capewell and Dave Coon were causing havoc. Excellent rucking and mauling by Lymm regained possession and despite desperate tackling by the opposition eventually the ball found its way to Simon Beards, who passed to Toby Phillips on the wing for anunconverted try. (19 -29).

The last few minutes of the game passed without either team able to make any serious attempt at a further score and all seemed grateful to hear the final whistle.

FULL TIME: WINNINGTON PARK 2 XV 29 – 19 LYMM EAGLES

A slightly disappointing game from the Eagles viewpoint particularly in the light of their recent excellent performance. Perhaps a little less chopping and changing of players during the game may have produced a more coherent performance. Still, everyone had a good time which is the main thing. All credit to Winnington who put in a first class performance and deserved the win and their position in the league table.

The after-match arrangements at Winnington were significantly enhanced by the fact that most of the team had come with their fancy dress costumes in preparation for the End of Season celebrations at Beechwood. The supporters in the bar were astounded to see all 4 Power Rangers, Iron Man, Groot, The Big Bad Wolf & Red Riding Hood, Frodo Baggins, Thor (2 Types), Men in Black, The Ukrainian President, and others emerge from the changing rooms for a post-match pint and a meal.

The real fun was going to be had back home at Lymm!

It’s always difficult to pick a man of the match in a losing cause. Special mentions this week go to Max Ure, who continues every week to show what a class rugby player he is and works so well together with his Dad Jez. Adam Halford carried well in the loose and took several restarts really well, and even remembered what to do in the lineout.

Toby Philips played his first match since knee surgery and his agility was a welcome addition. It was also great to welcome James Beards for his first senior match and will have been a proud moment for his Dad and long-time Eagle Simon.

However, after months of hard work, toil, putting his body on the line in conjunction with lots of lobbying, it makes me very happy to say that man of the match was awarded to our Captain, Olly Brown. Well done Olly, very well deserved, get it put in the Olly Brown achievements cabinet!

That completes the 23-24 season for the Eagles, who can be justifiably proud of their final position of 3rd place in the league. Above all they can be extremely proud of the way they played, both as individuals and as a team. They have always had each other’s backs and can count on their unwavering support. In my humble opinion as team scribe and supporter they have displayed the true spirit and sportsmanship in which the game of rugby should be played and it has been a pleasure to have been part of it.

There is a place for everyone at Lymm and anyone looking for a team next season will be welcome in the Eagles (exception though to the 1st team player who said we all looked like tw*ts in our fancy dress and provided the only sour point of the day, but will remain unnamed!!). Thank you for the fun, excitement and entertainment lads and thank you for letting me be a part of your fantastic squad.

Squad: 1) Olly Brown (C) 2) Craig Capewell 3) David Coon 4) Ben Lloyd 5) Adam Halford 6) Matt Grellier 7) Max Ure 8) Jack Harper 9) Chris Kinsey 10) Alan Reddecliff 11) Simon Beards 12) Rick McEvoy 13) Reece Forrest 14) Toby Philips 15) Liam Sullivan REP 16) Ollie Chesworth 17) Jim France 18) Jez Ure 19) George Harrison 20) Joe Rogers 21) Martin Henderson 22) Ash Caffrey 23) James Beards

Report by Pete & David Coon

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