When I first looked at the games for this weekend, I thought it may be four reports from games I was not at (the only reason there isn’t is I don’t have any report from one).

What made it a strange co-incidence is the first three were all at Mint Bridge. I knew I did not miss a home game between the one in 2011 and November 2015, but this got me thinking about how many other games I missed.

For once I had looked at the games well in advance, so last Sunday afternoon I found myself comparing the fixture lists with programmes (so anyone doubting how much I need some “real” rugby - I am now producing statistics about myself – HELP !). The outcome even surprised me.

Between the 2005/6 game (I had missed two others earlier that season) and the 2010/11 one, I missed just one other game at Mint Bridge (the cup game vs Rugby Lions in 2007/8), a run of 79 games. Then after the 2010/11 game I missed just three games at Mint Bridge before the 2015/16 game (all earlier in the 2015/16 season), which was a run of 68 games.

I worked out between the start of the 2005/06 season and the early end to last season I fail to see just 12 games of the 203 games at both Mint Bridges – but these three games were amongst them.

I decided to add a “bonus” game which I had been at and this turned out to have a special visitor to Mint Bridge – not that we would have any idea of that at the time.

27 February 2016
Blackburn (Home)
Dave Ball probably still has writer’s cramp after doing the report on this scoring extravaganza.

For the latter part of this season I was in Wales one weekend in two (having spent every weekend there in November and December, which were the missed games mentioned above). I had got it wrong and had been in Cumbria a week earlier for the Kirkby Lonsdale game, only for it to be postponed, but couldn’t swap my weekends.

There was a dryish pitch, helped by a week without rain. Kendal kicked towards the Farley's end and into the cool wind.

After 5 minutes Blackburn missed a difficult, long range penalty.

Seven minutes in saw Josh Chaplow replace Jack Morphet who appeared to roll his ankle.

The early exchanges were fairly even and in the tenth minute the Blackburn number 8 Jordan Pearson (also the skipper) was sent to the bin for a late tackle!

Quarter of an hour in and the first Kendal score, which saw a slick handling move, which was finished by Liam Hayton, powering over the whitewash, Glen Weightman, carrying on from the previous game, adding the extras. 7-0

Three minutes later saw a fabulous break from Weightman, who almost got to the line. The resulting scrum saw a few phases which resulted in James Gough going over Glen, slotting the conversion 14-0

Kendal were now getting into their stride and from another Glen Weightman break out, which involved a few feints and dummy's, Jack Lashley went over Glen converting 21-0

The 25th minute saw another Kendal break orchestrated by the two centres (Armstrong and Barker), which saw Nathan Wooff scoring. Glen slotting the difficult conversion 28-0

The half hour mark saw a spell of Blackburn pressure, but good work by Matty Houghton relieved the pressure.

There followed a 10 minute spell of a midfield battle, but as we moved into injury time, Chris Downham plunged over, and a rarity, Glen missed the extra's.

Half Time Score 33-0

After 50 minutes Jack was replaced by Dom Musetti at prop.

In the 51 minute Blackburn were penalised, for coming up in the scrum, near their own line. From the resulting pen Danny Barker scored the try, Glen adding the extra's. 40-0

The 55th minute saw a good break by Chris Downham, who showed great footballing skills to hack the ball towards the Blackburn line. The situation looked lost, but Mark Carruthers, who had another good game, followed up to touch down Mr Weightman booting the extra's.47-0

There followed a brief spell of Blackburn pressure, but never really threatened. The Kendal defence, once again, proving a very hard nut to crack!

On the hour mark a late tackle by Blackburn flanker Liam Canning, on Zane in full flow, saw a few handbags and the said Liam sent for a 10 minute rest. Now I know few of you will believe what happened next, but James Gough went to keep him company for his 10 minutes.

65 minutes and Jack went back on to replace an impressive Glenn Chesher. Chris Park came on to replace Mark Carruthers with Damian Armstrong moving to scrum-half. Zane replacing Damian at the centre.

74 minutes and great work by Matty Houghton and Chris Park saw Damian Armstrong repay their good work to score the try and Glen added the two. 54-0

The 75th minute saw, a by now rampant, Damian, score again. Glen with the conversion 61-0
Blackburn, who were still trying to play, open rugby, were being sliced open, by some great handling and a free flowing Kendal.

Fitness once again playing a part as we moved towards the 80th minute. Great work by Parky set up Matty Houghton for the try once again converted. 68-0

Another fabulous break by Damian saw a Parky try. Final Score 73-0

15 Nathan Wooff
14 Zane Butler
13 Damian Armstrong
12 Danny Barker
11 Mark Carruthers
10 Glen Weightman
9 James Gough

1 Glenn Chesher
2 Duncan Green
3 Jack Lashley
4 Liam Hayton
5 James Thompson
6 Matty Houghton
7 Jack Morphet
8 Chris Downham

rep Dom Musetti
rep Josh Chaplow
rep Chris Park

26th February 2011
Leicester Lions (Home)
This was the season we turned things around after Christmas (prior to which we had won just 3 of 12) to survive (for an extra season) after a battle between a number of teams at the foot of the table.

We had recently picked up good wins against Manchester and Rugby Lions, but they were at the foot of the table, this was the BIG one !

The Lions eventually finished the season in third, and if they had won here they would have ended above Loughbrough Students in second. They only lost six games all season. Four of our five previous wins that season had come against Manchester and Rugby, both well adrift at the foot of the table, the only other at home to fellow strugglers Morley.

The game was a re-arrangement of a postponement before Christmas, I was in Wales after being in Somerset the day before (a regular visit which is probably why I missed so many games at this time of year). I think it had been raining heavily on the Friday, so I doubted the game would take place and delayed my return – BIG mistake !

So the excellent report comes from BBC Radio Cumbria’s James Clarke, reproduced from a subsequent programme

“I’ve been lucky enough to have a thirty year career broadcasting covering my favourite sport. I’ve seen English Grand Slam games; winning and losing cup finals; European cups; and so on ...but nothing compared with the relief, tension and exuberance of the last minute against Leicester Lions!

What a game we’d had. No one really expected much from it. A losing bonus point would have been – well a bonus - but from the kick off three was a fresh feeling, a determination and energy, that had been lacking all season, and it just looked different. Young scrum half Lucian Morosan whipped passes out, giving Mark Ireland room to ply his trade, and the back line fizzed with movement and challenge. Alongside young Lucian, the less young Mark Bowman showed the Leicester back row a thing or two about modern back row play, and made the yards that counted time and again, as if they were just inches under his mighty feet.

Good honest toil forced the visitors onto the back foot time and again, and brought the reward of nine points from the boot of Mark Ireland, but as usual the side failed to get the eight more they should have when they had a man advantage, and sadly Leicester made no such error, and although faced with a magnificent and heroic seven man forward defence they drove over for a converted try on the stroke of half time.

The stand buzzed – 9v7 - could they hang on? Could we be seeing something special here?

The first score went to the visitors, and with it the lead for the first time. In recent times that would have been that. Not this day. The passes continued to fizz, the tackles were bone crunching, and the visitors just seemed a little rattled. Bowman drove, Hayton was everywhere, young Joe Robinson swooped in the line out, and Leicester made errors.

Suddenly Chris Park made a bit of space, and Kiwi Peter Stevens raced in for a magnificent roof lifting try! Then we saw something we have missed for so long, a “Kremer”, the pack in perfect formation, marching the opposition back yard after yard, Lucian snapping at their heels. Another Kiwi Iain Hudson came up grinning with the ball, another seven points, two scores ahead, home and dry?

Not yet, Leicester Lions fought back and got their own try 21v20 with minutes to go.

A breathless stand willed the final whistle, the players responded defence was excellent, tackle after tackle hit the men of the Midlands, until the fateful penalty and the roar that shattered the Saturday afternoon air !

They had done it, a well deserved win and a “they shall not pass mood” that had sadly been missing for a while”.

When looking out James’ report, I found I had misfiled part of one by Frank Jameson for the away game later in the season, to the date of this game. In that game we trailed 33v6 just after half time, to come back to 40v34, looking for a winning score – This time they were the ones wishing for the final whistle to blow.

15 Simon Mulholland
14 Chris Park
13 Ian Voortman
12 Ben Robinson
11 John Ladell
10 Mark Ireland
9 Lucian Morosan

1 Richard Harryman
2 Duncan Green
3 Iain Hudson
4 Liam Hayton
5 Joe Robinson
6 Dan White
7 Peter Stevens
8 Mark Bowman

25 February 2006
Blaydon (Home)
We lost, 12v48 in a season we did a lot of losing – unfortunately (or not) I have no notes as I was not there and there seemed a reluctance to have “Views (of yet another loss) from the Stand” that season.

I was at the re-arranged game against Darlington Mowden Park on 11th March, but we lost again (5v27), so I have skipped a week further, to the first game that season without a “L” against our name.

18 March 2006
Fylde (Home)
Fylde were mid-table, but were 50 points better off than us, having won 11 of their 21 games – we had no wins, no draws, no losing bonus points, no try scoring bonus points, and a minus 574 points difference, having scored only 192 points. Our best results so far had been holding Tynedale to an 8 point win and New Brighton away (immediately above us) to a 10 point win. Even if we had got maximum points from our remaining games, and Leicester Lions in the last safe place picked up none, we were already 14 points short of safely.

We started well and took the lead with a Chris Park try after five minutes, when a kick was charged down. Chris also added the conversion.

After ten minutes we extended our lead with an unconverted try from Luke Ladell.

It could not last and three minutes later Mike Scott got three points back for Fylde, only for three minutes later Chris Park to re-establish the lead.

The quick burst of scoring ended for a quarter of an hour, but then we extended the lead with a try from centre Dennis Bibby, after a quickly taken lineout. Chris Park added the conversion to give us a 22v3 half time lead.

Three minutes into the second half Mike Scott narrowed the lead with a drop goal, then added a penalty after fifteen minutes.

Five minutes later Fylde were within a score as wing Nick Royle scored their first (only) try and Scott added the conversion.

With ten minutes to play Scott brought the lead down to three with a third penalty.

Then two minutes into added time Fylde got a penalty. The crowd (at least the Kendal part) willed Scott to miss, just as we willed him to put kicks over in his time with us in earlier seasons, but he made no mistake.

We still finished with our first League points of the season and had outscored the opposition three tries to one.

As my “report” on the game is in Wales, the notes are from the programme (so hopefully C/D was charged down and Q/T quick throw), but I do remember the disappointment of Mike Scott’s final score.

15 Chris Park
14 Jon Ladell
13 Martin Armstrong
12 Dennis Bibby
11 Luke Ladell
10 Simon Mulholland
9 James Gough

1 Billy Coxon
2 Allen Martindale
3 Richard Harryman
4 Dave Preston
5 Liam Hayton
6 Garry Holmes
7 Mark Bright
8 Adrian Bateson

rep Ian Ross (u)
rep Ross Dougherty
rep Rob Quarry
rep Paul Dodds (u)

27 February 2001
Nottingham (Away)
I have been to Nottingham twice, but not with Kendal, so this report comes from John “Scoop” Hutton

“Sheer Drama. Talk about pulling the fat out of the fire! This game was won, lost and won again.

Kendal opened the scoring with a couple of very good tries, and looked to be going well, but Nottingham kept themselves in the game through their very pacey backline.

We led 17v24 at the turn around.

The second half was almost all the home side and with three minutes left they went ahead 25v24

However we were not quite finished. From a ruck in front of the Nottingham posts, Mike Scott went to drop a right foot goal, found his path blocked so switched to his left foot and the ball soared through the sticks.

The final minutes (or was it hours) were trade mark stuff with the forwards strangling the game.

A real nail biter - Promotion hopes still alive – just !”

The tries were scored by scrum half Jimmy Thompson, No.8 Adrian Bateson and replacement Richard Harryman, with Mike Scott converting all three, plus landing one out of two penalty attempts – plus that drop goal

Mention of promotion came as we were sitting fifth in National League Division Two, but with three games in hand over Harrogate who sat four points above us (no bonus points that season). Even leaders Bracknell were only seven points ahead, having played one more game than us

We finished our first season at that level in fourth place, losing just three more games that season to the three who finished above us, Bracknell, Rugby Lions and Rosslyn Park. If we had won all three we would have got second place – not sure if that was a play off or automatic promotion,

One of the factors in the success (spotted in my report of the next game) was a very stable selection. By the Esher game at the end of March, we had played 20 games, six of the team had appeared in all of them, four had missed one game, three others two games, and one three games, although some of those will come from starts from on the bench. Ian Thompson was missing in that game for the first time that season. The odd one out in the team versus Esher was Dan Stephens who had come in after Christmas to replace Ian Voortman, who had broken his leg in a game at Newbury.

15 Mike Scott
14 Jason Balmer
13 Steve Healey
12 Dan Stephens
11 Paul Dodds
10 Casey Mee
9 Jimmy Thompson

1 Billy Coxon
2 Ian Gowing
3 Ian Thompson
4 Richard Harryman
5 Mike Capstick
6 Colin Wolstenholme
7 Nathan Bland
8 Adrian Bateson

rep Mark Bowman
rep Aaron Myers
rep Keith Robinson

10th March 2001
Lydney (Home)
As mentioned at the start, I thought I was going to have a set of matches which I had not been at (before finding I had no report for the Blaydon game). So I decided to add one when I had been there – only to find this game has an extra significance.

Like Nottingham, I have watched rugby in Lydney (which is between Newport and Gloucester) but neither Kendal nor Newport were involved. It was a Cup match and the opposition were Sale with ex English International Steve Smith at scrum half

Between the Nottingham game and this one we had been due to play Fylde (for some reason on a Sunday – but I was there) but at kick off they refused to come out as they felt the pitch was not safe – despite the referee saying it was (rumours were they had a few players out). So the programme for this game had much discussion on it – with a “View from the Tractor” which had been used to roll the pitch.

Visitors Lydney were struggling against relegation at the foot of the table, but had won their home game against Kendal 20v16 at the start of the season. We had a very young referee, who someone told me was from Norwich, was only in his early twenties, but “destined for greater things” It was a wet afternoon

Lydney started well and took a 0v6 lead with two penalties, and it looked as if we may have trouble.

Instead Lydney could not keep up the pace. Mike Scott kicked a penalty and we came back with two tries from the back row (Colin Wolstenholme and/or Nathan Bland) for 15v6.

Then just before half time at a ruck in front of our posts, there was suddenly a roar from the crowd on the bank, as a Lydney player appears to hit someone. The touchline experts predicted a yellow card, but no messing with this referee, it was Red.

Mike Scott added the resulting penalty to give us a 18v6 lead at half time.

Having played towards the clubhouse in the first half, expectations were we would now control the game, which saw the crowd shift to the far end of the ground, but instead play stayed at the clubhouse end.

We added a penalty, but Lydney playing the better rugby adding one of their own, and the view of the touchline was if Lydney could get a converted try we were in trouble,

However despite the pressure Lydney could not score. Then a long kick out of defence was gathered by the Lydney fullback, who tried to run it back, but was caught, and the Kendal forwards arrived first to carry him back over the line, and steal the ball to score (Wolstenholme or Bland).

Lydney continued to play like a team with more rather than less men, and finally numbers were evened up when Mark Bowman, who had come on for Nathan Bland, was yellow carded for persistent offside.

We added a further try from Paul Dodds for a 33v9 win

The young referee was back at Mint Bridge again in September 2001, when we played Rosslyn Park. Despite the fact he had us down to thirteen just before half time, when first Liam Hayton and then Ian Thompson offended once too often, from my notes he was clearly one I approved of.

In that game we were 6v9 down at half time, but came back to win 39v9. My view at the time was the half time team talk was, “unless you want to be playing for the second team next weekend, changes are needed”.

The “young” referee has certainly gone on to “greater things”, and has very recently been seen by a much bigger audience using his Red card in a slightly more high profile game, with his performance scrutinised by even greater experts than those who stood on the bank (although they may disagree). His name was Wayne Barnes. At 21 he was the youngest to get on the Panel of National Referees.

Not sure who told me he was “destined for greater things” - could have been Rob Quarry’s dad, but he was certainly well informed.

When looking up how old Wayne Barnes was at the time (21), I discovered whilst he was from Norfolk, as he was studying at University there, he had grown up in the Forest of Dean, which is close to Lydney. I then found he went to school in Lydney !

Just as well we won and it was one of theirs’ who got the Red card.

In the second game against Rosslyn Park, there was another “soon to be better known” name. Park’s No.8 was future England International Nick Easter.

It’s amazing who was once seen on Sainsbury’s car park !

15 Mike Scott
14 Jason Balmer
13 Steve Healey
12 Dan Stephens
11 Paul Dodds
10 Casey Mee
9 Jimmy Thompson

1 Billy Coxon
2 Ian Gowing
3 Ian Thompson
4 Richard Harryman
5 Mike Capstick
6 Colin Wolstenholme
7 Nathan Bland
8 Adrian Bateson

rep Mark Bowman
rep Aaron Myers
rep Keith Robinson

Thanks to all my co-contributors this week

The picture is (I think) of the young Mr Barnes at the Lydney game – from the cover of the Esher programme (there doesn’t look much room in the Stand that afternoon !).