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Where Were We Now ?

Where Were We Now ?

Mark Hodgkiss13 Mar 2021 - 20:49
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https://www.kendalrugby.co.uk/

Week 17

Twelve months since the last “Live” rugby to report on, as the First XV were away at West Hartlepool this weekend last year (we will be back to that game in a couple of weeks), whilst the Wasps played Hartlepool Rovers on the 3G the following day.

Could there finally be some light at the end of the long tunnel ?
See elsewhere on the website for news.

This time four wins (from five games as I added an extra) four games at Mint Bridge (the extra game is the away game), however this is as I have “avoided” two big away losses, one I was at and wrote the report, the other I genuinely do not have a report for (and the alternative is the only loss).

10 March 2018
Sandal (Home)
We were five points and three places above our visitors at the start of the day, but Sandal had a game in hand.

We started well and had the lead after just two minutes. Glen Weightman made a break down the left wing, then rolled a long kick into corner. The pack put pressure on the Sandal lineout, and a relieving kick to touch was partially charged down, and came to Brett Ashley. The ball was moved infield where Glen Weightman spotted a gap and went through to score under the posts, with Chris Park adding the conversion. 7v0

We continued to have the better of the play, but several good breaks came to nothing. One from Mike Fearon saw his pass not go to the hands of Matt Charters in support.

After twenty minutes we added a second try. Sandal ball was stolen in our twenty two and Glen Weightman put a long kick into the opposition half. The Sandal fullback tried to run the ball back, but when he put a kick through to chase, Ross McKay managed to palm it down into the hands of Dini Noyo, who with plenty of space to work with went in from close to halfway for an unconverted try.

Whilst the Sandal backs often looked dangerous with ball in hand, our defence was equal to everything thrown at it.

Sandal finally got a breakthrough close to half time. A long kick upfield was gathered by Brett Ashley, but he found himself isolated and the ball was turned over. The Kendal defence was slow to get back, and Sandal made good ground, and when the ball was moved to the right Sandal prop Tom Baxter went over, despite Brett Ashley’s attempts to stop him. 12v5.

We dominated the second half, but rarely looked like scoring. Sandal got well on top in the scrums, driving their own put-ins and looking for penalties, whilst disrupting our scrum put-ins, making pickups difficult for Matt Charters.

After winning some Sandal ball at the lineout in the first half, the Kendal lineout also started to struggle. Rather than play to the conditions, and kick for position as we had in the first half, we often over complicated moves, trying to take on a powerful Sandal pack.

With time running out, Sandal had their best spell of the half, forcing us to concede a number of penalties, which saw Jacob Sutton (both official and website Man of the Match) yellow carded when we were defending on their try line as the game entered injury time.

However after struggling to secure our own lineout ball for much of the half, we stole Sandal lineout ball on our line, which allowed Glen Weightman to put the ball to touch to end the game.

The win kept us above Sandal, but an end of season slump, losing the last four games, saw us drop from eighth to tenth with only them between us and the bottom three.

15 - Chris Park
14 - Brett Ashley
13 - Mike Fearon
12 - Danny Barker
11 - Kris Bratton
10 - Glen Weightman
9 - Dini Noyo

1 - Glenn Chesher
2 - Robbie Collinson
3 - Dom Musetti
4 - Ross McKay
5 - Ben Leacock
6 - Garry Holmes
7 - Jacob Sutton
8 - Matt Charters

rep - Jack Lashley
rep - Nathan Wooff
rep - Duncan Green (u)

2nd March 2013
Birkenhead Park (Home)
This weekend we were losing away to eventual Champions Chester by 70v7, but I decided to instead go back a week to a rare event in that season. A win.

Having been relegated the previous season, we won two of our first four League games (we also narrowly lost our opening game at home to Burnage, in what was possibly the worst performance by two teams I have ever watched). Any thoughts of consolidation or a return to the League Two were however soon dispelled by a run of thirteen losses, before a win over West Hartlepool (who as always in seasons when they play us, were on their way to relegation), and after two more losses, the third relegatee visited Mint Bridge.

We had given Birkenhead Park their first win of the season in October, with a six point loss which at the time had seemed a lot bigger, not the only time we have not performed to potential there.

Whilst both teams sat in the relegation places, Birkenhead Park were looking to follow up on victory away at fourth place Percy Park, to cut the seven point gap between themselves and fourth bottom Bradford & Bingley.

After a good game at scrum half the previous weekend at Rossendale, where he scored twice, Dini Noyo retained his place at scrum half, with Simon Davidson slotting into the centre.

The game started badly. The Birkenhead pack got to their own kick off first, and whilst Dan White reclaimed the ball, he knocked on, and a player in an offside position played the ball. Birkenhead Park put the penalty to the corner and their pack drove to the line, to open the scoring.

We were quickly back in the game. An excellent drive by the pack at a scrum near halfway, saw the much larger Birkenhead pack being forced to concede a penalty. Chris Park put the kick into the twenty two, and after the forwards had gathered the ball, and set up a drive to the line, Dini caught the Birkenhead defence, by instead of passing out, taking the shortest route to the line himself, and wriggled over for a try, which Chris Park converted, to take the lead

When Birkenhead had the ball they often went through many phases of play, but our defence was rarely troubled. We kept the ball tight when in possession, but the forwards struggling to make ground against the large Birkenhead pack. There was however a lot more variety in their play, with Dini always looking to get the ball moving quickly from the breakdown, which was clearly tiring some of the Birkenhead pack.

After defending against a long period of Birkenhead pressure, Kendal had a chance to extend their lead. The ball was moved quickly after the Birkenhead pack had been penalised for blocking at a lineout near our line. A long kick upfield, was chased down and a poor kick from the Birkenhead defender, led to a penalty for offside, but the penalty attempt failed.

With ten minutes of the half, Chris Park was successful with a second penalty for offside, only for us to almost immediately give away a similar penalty, to restore the gap again

A second try came in first half injury time. Richard Harryman found a gap in the Birkenhead defence close to halfway, and after a break passed to Garry Holmes. The ball was then moved across field with centre Simon Davidson making a break, before feeding Simon Mulholland, who gave the scoring pass to Jamie Postlethwaite, who squeezed in, in the corner, to give us a 15v8 half time lead.

Birkenhead Park started the second half well, but we were soon on attack. Liam Hayton broke the defence in the twenty two, only to find himself with no support when he was stopped.

Kendal’s third try came from a Simon Mulholland break. Jason Poleman carried the move on, before feeding Simon Davidson, who seemed to be benefitting from the extra space away from the pack. Chris Park put over the simple conversion. 22v8.

Birkenhead Park, continued to have long spells of possession, without looking like breaking the Kendal defence, which was for once seeming watertight.

The legality of a thundering tackle by Richard Harryman, appeared to have been questioned by the referee, but after lecturing Birkenhead players, he only awarded a penalty against us for offside in midfield, which Birkenhead wasted by putting the kick to touch dead.

With twenty five minutes gone, Jason Poleman made a break from defence, but again lack of support meant the move fizzled out.

We had an opportunity to extend the lead in strange circumstances. We were penalised in front of the Birkenhead posts, but a Birkenhead player spoke out, and the penalty reversed. Instead of looking for the fourth bonus point try, a kick at goal was taken, to try to extend the lead beyond two converted tries, but the kick was missed.

With five minutes of the game to go, Jason Poleman made another break, but when the Kendal forwards failed to join the resulting ruck, Birkenhead Park easily turned possession over, and from the resulting move were awarded a penalty. This was run quickly, for scrum half Brogan to score in the left hand corner. Fortunately the conversion failed meaning Birkenhead still needed to score twice.

Shortly after the restart, Kendal were reduced to fourteen men, when flanker Dan Greenwood was yellow carded. Earlier hopes that the big Birkenhead Pack would run out of steam as the game neared the end, were unfounded and it was the Kendal pack, which had spent long periods repelling the Birkenhead attacks, which appeared to be struggling, but they continued to put their bodies on the line to hold out for a rare victory.

15 - Simon Mulholland
14 - Jamie Postlethwaite
13 - Jason Poleman
12 - Simon Davidson
11 - Alistair Thompson
10 - Chris Park
9 - Dini Noyo

1 - Alistair Livesey
2 - Duncan Green
3 - Richard Harryman
4 - Liam Hayton
5 - Reece Tomlinson
6 - Dan White
7 - Dan Greenwood
8 - Garry Holmes

rep - Ben Leacock
rep - James Thompson
rep - Adam Jackson

8 March 2008
Penrith (Home)
We had no game this weekend, and there seems to be a three week gap in the League programme, so I had a choice of going back a week to this game or ahead to a cup game in Workington, but in the end decided to include both.

We sat top of the league with a 100% record from our eighteen games. Penrith were at the opposite end of the table with just four wins, but were only a win (two points) from safety.

We were without outside half Dan Stephens for the first time that season, so fullback Hoani Moore moved to outside half, and Chris Park to fullback with Matt Gracie coming onto the wing, despite having wing John Ladell in the centre.

Penrith had former Kendal players Martin Armstrong, James Lund, Dave Preston and Mark Bowman in their team. They must have won the toss as they chose to play with the wind first half, possibly knowing the wind often dropped at half time, and we preferred attacking the clubhouse end with the partisan support of the “Bank” in the second half.

Despite the very muddy conditions we seemed intent on running everything and kept dropping the ball and allowed Penrith to pin us in their half.

There was a stream of penalties and warnings from the referee, and when captain Ian Voortman illegally stole the ball, he saw a yellow card – I was not sure the Penrith centres appreciated this, as it meant we moved flanker Nick McKain into the centre, and he put in a few of his trademark crunching tackles.

Whilst we were down to 14 men we got a penalty near half way and the Penrith scrum half ran away with the ball to stop a quick penalty being taken. One of the Ladell twins went to get the ball and something happened (I though a prop threw a punch) and his brother was off to defend him, but was fortunately held back by one of our forwards. When the referee restored order he called over the Penrith scrum half Ed Swale (who had disappeared down the field) and waved a card. I assumed he had been binned for taking the ball (although the penalty was not advanced). It was only later we found out from our touch judge that it had not been Yellow but Red. Swale had headbutted Ladell, so Penrith were down to fourteen men for three quarters of the game.

We continued to make mistakes, but were holding Penrith out and would have advantage of the wind in the second half. Then on half time the Penrith outside half (playing in the scrum half position) broke from close to halfway, and managed to evade Kendal tackles to score in the corner – and then converted his try

The half wasn’t finished and finally (too late) we got the message to kick to touch and compete in the lineouts. A penalty took us to the 22 and the pack went for a trademark drive – twice the referee indicated penalties and finally when play stopped he took out his yellow card and the Penrith No 4 (captain) had a extra ten minute break. Instead of going to touch we went for a forward pick up and drive, and whilst Penrith set up to defend this, James Gough quickly took the ball and dived over for a try. Against a wind, from out wide and without normal kicker Dan Stephens, the conversion failed, so 5v7 at half time – but we would have the wind in the second half and they were less two players for the first ten minutes.

So instead of kicking to the corner and looking for lineouts we continue to try to play running rugby, despite the fact the end we were attacking was now like a ploughed field due to Penrith’s territorial dominance in the first half. Penrith play the game we should have played in the first half, just kicking the ball up field and let us try to bring it back.

We started to panic and instead of kicking for the corner, took a penalty from way out which just about reached the posts – at ground level.

With twenty minutes to go there was a bit of controversy. We kicked to the corner and went for a drive, but again the referee penalised Penrith for dropping the drive. He called the culprit over, and appeared to be about to give him a yellow card, but it was again the Penrith captain who had been yellow carded at the end of the first half, so a second would have seeen Penrith down to thirteen men for the last quarter, so instead a warning was seen as sufficient. To make matters worse we botched the following penalty.

With the clock was running down and with Penrith still holding a two point advantage, the man next to me suggested we would need another “Huddersfield” finish (where Chris Park scored a try in the eigthieth minute, for a two point win). We could not even get close enough for a drop goal attempt.

With about two minutes of normal time to go, Penrith had the ball, but it went loose and a Kendal forward was the first to it. For once instead of the predictable forward drive, James Gough took the ball himself, then fed a Ladell brother who had a three to one overlap, and committed his man before feeding his brother, who gave the ball to Matt Gracie (who I felt otherwise had had a poor afternoon). Everyone held their breath waiting for the referee to call a forward pass, but instead he raised his arm for the score under the posts 10v7. The players celebrated as if they had won the World Cup, but the supporters were yelling at them to get back and defend from the kick off. Ian Voortman clearly had also realised this, and got the team in a huddle whilst the conversion was taken 12v7.

Andrew Hudson took the kick-off and drove up field, but was injured in the process. Having already brought the two forwards subs on, we only had young full back Dan Murray on the bench, so he joined the scrum. The Penrith No.8 Mike Raine obviously thought this would allow him a good run, but instead he was knocked back by Murray’s tackle and needed treatment. Murray also received strapping on his head – but we were not sure if this was for an injury or protection.

At the next scrum the same happens, No 8 pickup followed by a crunching tackle. So now we now had backs who could play in the pack, as well as forwards who could play in the back division.

Penrith were clearly worn out, and our supporters wanted another try, but the players decided on safety first and just played keep ball until the whistle.

So we had played our “Get Out of Jail” card yet again and expended yet another of our “nine lives” but only needed to win two of the last three games to claim promotion

I speculated that we would rest the first team and send the second team, who were also top of their League to Workington for a cup game the following week.

15 - Chris Park
14 - Matt Gracie
13 - John Ladell
12 - Ian Voortman
11 - Luke Ladell
10 - Hoani Moore
9 - James Gough

1 - Billy Coxon
2 - Duncan Green
3 - Richard Harryman
4 - Liam Hayton
5 - Gareth Gore
6 - Andrew Hudson
7 - Nick McKain
8 - Mark Wilson

rep - Allen Martindale
rep - Rob Quarry
rep - Dan Murray

22 March 2008
Workington (Away)
I was wrong and we fielded a fairly strong team with eight of the first team. Workington were in the North Lancs/Cumbria league that season, and were current in fourth place. The top three Blackburn, Rossendale and Kirkby Lonsdale, now all play two levels higher, whilst we have also since played Wigton in the League.

Their President clearly had a short memory as he said in the programme “It must be some time since we played Kendal at the Ellis” (their ground). As the report three weeks ago proves, it was in fact just three years.

He also listed a number of their ex-players who went to on to play for Kendal. Adrian Bateson, Dan Bowman, Martin Armstrong (see Penrith game) I was aware of. Also Ryan Dobie (who played for them in this game) and Ross Dougherty were regulars in the ill fated 2005/06 season (although I remember neither), whilst Dion Seath was just before my time. The one name I had no idea had a connection with Workington (until I re-read it) was Simon Mulholland

Workington started with the wind, but we dominated the game without being able to score, due to a solid defence – in fact the majority of the Workington backline was “solid” including Dobie and Seath, who both had good games.

Finally after twenty five minutes we abandoned the pretty stuff (which wasn’t working) and went for a forward drive, which lead to a try from Liam Hayton.

Almost immediately Workington struck back with a penalty 5v3, but in injury time after a tap penalty, James Gough quickly re-cycled the ball to dive over for a 10v3 halftime lead against the wind.

Workington were however clearly in no mood to surrender and after several forward drives their hooker went over after five minutes to reduce the lead to 10v8. This lasted four minutes until from another Kendal drive, young second row Reece Tomlinson came up with the ball, but the conversion failed 15v8

Workington began to find holes in the Kendal defence, and were managing to retain possession far better than Kendal. Dion Seath was causing us a number of problems and made several good breaks, one of which led to a try under the post by a forward 15v15.

We had the lead back six minutes later, when Andrew Boardley finished off a crossfield passing move then converted his own try, from close to the touchline 22v15.

Workington were still not finished and we kicked possession away, they ran it back and after numerous re-cycling of the ball, someone crashed over near enough the posts for the outside half to convert, 22v22

Ian Voortman finally pulled off a crash ball, and four minutes later we had the lead back when he went under the posts for Andrew Boardley to convert 29v22

Another handling movement however saw the Workington No.8 cross way out, but he chose to run in behind the posts – which allowed the conversion to be scored, but could have been embarrassing if he had dropped the ball or had it taken off him by a Kendal player. 29v29 with five minutes to go.

With time running a number of our supporters speculating on the Cup rules (which they thought said extra time / tries / then the away team). Workington had a driving maul from inside their half, and two front row men broke away – unfortunately (for them) the shock of being in open space led to the ball carrier running into his mate and the referee, much to the Workington crowd’s disgust, awarding us a scrum.

A back row move saw Garry Holmes (my notes of the game said “man of the match” by far!) break through the opposition defence and although he was hauled down close to the line, Mark Wilson, on as a replacement for Reece Tomlinson, was in support to take a pass and dive over the line. The conversion was successful and the referee blew for time immediately preventing any chance of a Workington comeback.

So maybe it was just as well we brought so many first team players, bringing a future International off the bench for the winning score, although possibly the second team would have been more use to this type of opposition.

So yet again a very very late win.

15 - Chris Park
14 - Graham Coulter
13 - Brett Ashley
12 - Ian Voortman
11 - Andrew Boardley
10 - Hoani Moore
9 - James Gough

1 - Richard Harryman
2 - Duncan Green
3 - Allen Martindale
4 - Liam Hayton
5 - Reece Tomlinson
6 - Garry Holmes
7 - Rob Quarry
8 - Nick McKain

rep - Mark Wilson
rep - Wharren Wharton
rep - Paul Gillard

1 March 2003
Esher (Home)
I don’t have a lot of reports for after Christmas this season, the problem being if I was not at the game, I don’t have a programme, so not only no report, but no “View from the Stand” from a previous game. I have just one report in January, February and March, plus two (both away) in April.

On this weekend (in a season which ended in relegation) we were losing away at Doncaster by 62v15, but the nearest I have a report from is this game from a fortnight earlier where I have three reports, my own, plus two from the Stand, - and they don’t necessarily agree.

I remember nothing about the game, but do clearly remember it for the “added” support we got that weekend, and felt it lifted the team to a much improved performance.

Whilst we were second bottom, we within three points (two wins) of the four teams above us, so still plenty to play for, but a visit from an Esher team in third place, coached by ex-England International Peter Winterbottom, looked a tough challenge.

The odd thing was both my own report and that “from the stand” suggested we had had back to back wins to give us hope of survival (we only won once more on the final day away at bottom placed Fylde), but the stats did not seem to back this up. We had won on 8 February and prior to that not since 28 December. I finally worked out we must have been talking about “home” games, despite four away losses (and a home draw) in that period.

We started, as we seemed to prefer, playing away from the clubhouse.

As their position suggested Esher looked a good team, but we did not help ourselves by conceding a string of penalties, but on St David’s Day, a referee with Welsh heritage (Llyr ap Geraint Roberts) fortunately did not resort to his yellow card for persistent offending. (That was my view – one other reporter said both teams were unimpressed by him, whilst the other felt he had been Esher’s sixteenth man, by awarding the penalties).

We opened the scoring after seven minutes with a Mike Scott penalty, after we stole an Esher put in at the scrum.

It was not until the twentieth minute that they drew level, but five minutes later they added a converted try from a driving maul,

We quickly levelled the scores with a try from Ian Voortman converted by Mike Scott.

So the teams turned all square at 10v10 and this remained the score for twenty minutes, when the powerful Esher right wing scored and the fullback added the conversion.

With five minutes to play Mike Scott pulled three points back with a penalty,

In injury time, after the Esher full back had been stretched off, Mike Scott added another penalty to bring Kendal within a point, but the view on the touchline was we would have preferred to have looked for a try.

The decision backfired as from the kick off, Esher took the ball to the Kendal line and the wing scored again to open an eight point lead.

So another loss, but I felt we had done well to get so close to a very good team, helped more than a little by some amazing additional support from the stand.

A school from Bolton were in the area playing schools in Kendal and Penrith over the weekend, and were very vocal in their support for us. Someone suggested we should sack our coach and hire one to bring them in for all the remaining games.

15 - Dan Stephens
14 - Jason Balmer
13 - Steve Healey
12 - Ian Voortman
11 - Luke Ladell
10 - Mike Scott
9 - James Hadwin

1 - Nigel Pearson
2 - Ian Gowing
3 - Ian Thompson
4 - Keith Robinson
5 - Andrew Hudson
6 - Colin Wolstenholme
7 - Phil Skillern
8 - Adrian Bateson

rep - Dan Bowles
rep - Dave Preston
rep - Dan Bowman
rep - Dumile Jihana

==

PHOTO : The type I like ! An excellent piece of photography means whilst I think that is my umbrella in the background, I am obscured by a very serious looking Glen (on his way to the opening try against Sandal ?), with Dini giving as, well as in, support.

Further reading