Toc H 3’s faced Heaton Moor 2’s

It was a lovely day for rugby last Saturday, where Toc H 3’s faced Heaton Moor 2’s in a local derby

match. Buoyed by previous results and bolstered by the unfortunate cancellation of the 4’s fixture, the late meet time saw a host of familiar faces steeling themselves to put in a good shift against a respected local rival.

Kick off saw a bruising physical forwards encounter, where - ably led by Rob Weeden (4)- Toc’s tight 5 worked well together to allow the Flankers to cause mischief at the fringes of Moors’ rucks. Tom Pinney (6) was chief snatcher – snaffling the ball like a pig searching for truffles. A main feature of Tocs’ offensive capability was the cannonball like Openside BEVU (7), who barrelled through Moors line like a runaway freight train, offloading with efficiency to the support runners who - uncharacteristically for a Toc side – were queuing up for passes on left and right. This style of
running open play was a breath of fresh air for Toc and the intelligent use of ball provided the magic Aiden Aidan Jones (9) ample freedom to express himself in the middle of the park. Toc were rewarded time and time again for their efforts, with a try from comedian and social rights campaigner Simon McAleenan (8) and two excellently taken scores from Welsh wizard Caradoc Morris (5), who trundled over the line being chased from the 22 metre line. “I’ve never run so fast in my life!” he wheezed heroically.

Ginger James Brooks (10) was content to provide the conversions, slotting all bar one, adding 16 points. He also denied a second try to returning tight-head Andy Reynolds (3), his first a gut busting 5 metre jog over the whitewash after Josh Holding (1) had done all the hard work. To complete the tight three, Dale Beardsall (2) provided sterling service in the set pieces, anchoring the forwards even under sustained pressure in the scrum.

The centre partnership was enough to disorganise the Moor line, as the youth of BUSTFIELD (12) complimented the old head but willing body of RICHIE IRVINE (13), providing headaches for Moor whenever they advanced.

GARY DOUGHILL (14) was provided good ball by the centres and unleashed silver haired winger and small Japanese sports-car enthusiast Crispin Edwards (15) with a fine offload which would have made Lions legend John Bevan smile ruefully. On the other side, Mark Williams (11) provided some fantastic runs through the line, and memorably rucked a prop off the ball when the forwards
were… conserving their energy.

Moor were not ones to be cowed by this onslaught, and took full advantage of Toc indiscipline with hands in the ruck, being allowed to move up the field to score either side of half time virtually
unopposed.

Changes made at halftime, it was to Tocs’ credit that the foot didn’t come off the gas, with replacements SULLY, JENKS and François-Guillaume Cancel providing some fresh legs, indeed Toc were lucky to have the services of SKIPPY at replacement wing, whose Teflon coated shorts allowed him to hop, skip and jump through the line like his bush kangaroo namesake, scoring from a lovely jinking run.

Gary Daniels, punished by bench duty for wearing hideous gloves, made an appearance late on, with manager / takeaway major shareholder Sam Churchill putting in a sublime 2 minute stint at the end. I think I even saw him jog, but he could have been knocked off balance by a sneeze.

Whilst the game ended 61-14 (apparently), it does not do justice to a Moor side which never gave up and gave an excellent account of themselves throughout.

We also send our congratulations to 3rd teamer David Brooks and his partner Faye on the birth of their daughter Edith on Saturday.