14 Men, 2 hours early and our try was scored by Patrick Swayze from Point Break…

After a promising opening match against Macclesfield 4s last week Old Bedians 2nd team travelled to Lymm on Saturday in hope of another good performance. In uncharacteristic Bedians style we set off early and despite Phil Parker’s sat-nav taking us to see the sights of the M56 we arrived almost 2 hours before kick-off. In very characteristic Bedians style, however, we only had 14 men, of which only 5 were recognised backs.

This is never something to worry a Bedians team though and after borrowing a sturdy old prop from the opposition and rearranging a few forwards into the backs we were kicking off on the carpet-like pitch in the sunshine. The game started very promisingly and with powerful running from Aaron ‘Tin-ribs’ Thomas at number 8 and big Stu Crabb at inside centre (yes, inside centre!) we were pushing Lymm back into their own 22. The score stayed at 0-0 during the early periods although Bedians should have made the most of early possession and territory. Sadly the cutting edge was slightly lacking when we got close to the line.

Part way through the first half Lymm showed us how it was done and their pacey backs broke through some poor tackling to make the score 7-0.

More pressure from Bedians and some kicks to the corner lead to two penalties in quick succession reasonably close to the line. We opted to kick and take the points although these sadly didn’t quite make it over the posts. In fact they barely made it over head height and one of the penalties smacked a surprised Lymm forward in the chest! At 7-6 we would have been really back in the game but instead the play went down the other end of the pitch. Towards the end of the first half the Lymm backs again took advantage of poor tackling and ran in a three more tries in quick succession to make the score 26-0 at half time. It certainly wasn’t a true reflection of the first half and Bedians at least deserved some points from all the early possession.

In the second half as tiredness began to tell Lymm were able to make use of their large squad. Lymm again exposed some tired tackling and touched down three more times during the second half to sew the match up. There were however some spirited performances and some positive moments in the second half. Most notable was Stevie Cook stealing the ball at a line out in our own half, pinning his ears back and setting off down the wing like Usain Bolt. When support was needed the oldest man on the pitch was on his shoulder to help out, which was impressive considering Phil “Half Man/Half forgot his tape” Parker didn’t have his usual amount of strapping to hold his body together.

Griff was his usual feisty self at outside centre, and Elton filled in at 10 with a surly calmness. Mully and Jay didn’t quite see as much ball as they would have liked on the wings but put in a lot of tackles and Declan rolled back the years to play a solid game at full back. The forwards put in a strong display and with the addition of another Lymm prop the scrum and line-outs were pretty solid throughout the match. Phil Parker and Andy certainly both won plenty of ball in the line-outs with good throwing from Captain Cook. Big Ribs and Mini-ribs both put in some big hits around the park and carried the ball powerfully. Catman picking up the ball a few times and rumbling up the pitch. “Shit” Steve popped up all over the place to defy his nickname, put in some solid tackles and to win Man of the Match for an “Average” performance.

Sadly we were just over powered on the day by some good running backs, a bigger squad and a more well-drilled side. When Lymm come down to Millgate Lane in a few months we’ll hopefully have a few more men in the squad (even just having 15 would be nice) and with a bit more training and match practice under our belts we’ll give them a real good game.

Fittingly the match ended with a Bedians try, although not as you might imagine it. With a few minutes to go Elton went off with a shoulder injury so Lymm kindly lent us their Captain who’d already had a good 70 minutes at fly-half and had subbed himself off early probably to go wax his surf board. With one play left Bedians stole the ball back from a re-start and shipped it out to the blonde beach bum just outside the Lymm 22, he skipped a couple of tackles and promptly scored against his own team. It wasn’t quite how we wanted to get onto the scoreboard but it was better than ending the game to nil. The kicking duties got passed to Ben Rogerson who’d kicked a few penalties to touch in the second half and should have knocked it over with ease. He stepped up and confidently slotted it the wrong side of the posts. Another fitting end to the match. Next time there are 3 penalties directly under the posts that are missed by 3 different backs maybe they should ask around the club a bit and find out who saved tour…