There are some very well known and hotly contested sporting encounters:Liverpool v Everton, Rangers v Celtic, England v anyone (in any sport!) Etc.Etc. But none quite compare to an Ormskirk v Southport Rugby fixture. However, by some fluke of fixtures and tournament runs, Ormskirk U11s travelled the short distance to Southport without having played them since the tender days of Tag Rugby. Therefore nobody really knew what to expect.
On arrival at Southport, the pitch and weather were both perfect but based on the size of some of the Southport players, it quickly became apparent that the Ormskirk boys were going to need a big performance if they were to continue in their winning ways of this season.
Captain for the day was Patrick ‘Butane’ Hagerty who as well as being a very good rugby player has thankfully shown no signs of inheriting his Father’s healthy respect for discipline and authority (especially of the refereeing kind). However, despite a number of bullocking runs from Butane and his
front 5 colleagues Matt ‘the rocket’ Reddy and the ever improving Benjamin ‘headless chicken’ Pose, Ormskirk made heavy work of the opening encounters.
After 15 mins of ‘trench warfare’ the Ormskirk forwards began to get the upper hand by winning some clean ball for the backs to work with and following a good passage of play, Miles ’sniffer’ Neve managed a pop pass to Will ’snake hips’ Church who daintily crashed over the line in true forward
fashion - not bad for a centre! Will was also wearing his new scrum cap which it’s fair to say, would not look out of place at a bamitsphah! (Poor lad - it’s his Dad’s fault for being a skinflint and buying the cheaper one!!) The try was duly converted by John ‘jonny’ Thornhill. Shortly after and following an almost identical passage of play, Luke ‘Boston strangler’ Grant was stopped short of the Southport line but managed make the ball available for ‘Headless’ to scoop up and drive over the line for a well deserved try. Extra’s again added by ‘Jonny’.
An almost immediate response from Southport took the half time score to 7-14 and also made it clear that despite their improving performance, Ormskirk were not going to have it all their own way.
As the second half resumed, the Ormskirk pack bagan to exert ever more pressure on their opposite numbers with Tom ‘the hitman’ Hanlon hooking two consecutive scrums against the head. Second row ‘Jonny’ Thornhill was
everywhere and continually doing his rugby tackling equivalent of Odd Job’s hat! This pressure ultimately opened gaps in the Southport defence which brought tries in quick succession from speed machine Jack ‘billy whizz’ Whisker and then our in form fly half Adam ‘crusher’ Kingston. Extras for both were added by ‘Jonny’.
A number of substitutions were made which saw the welcome return to the squad of Mitchell ’slugger’ Slocombe. Jacob ‘g force’ Glover came on at left wing and Nathan ‘bomber’ Brown came on to the right wing, both making a number of good runs up their respective wings. Luke ‘reggie’ Kray Sephton came on at hooker and immediately took up in the scrum where ‘the hitman’ had left off and promptly hooked another scrum against the head.
Southport were still by no means out of the game and managed to use their big forwards to make ground and then breach the Ormskirk line to score a converted try. Score 14 - 28. Southport may even have managed more points had it not been for quick thinking (and quick running) fullback Ben ‘ronnie kray’ Sephton clearing his lines.
With a final push into the last quarter, scrum half ’sniffer’ Neve darted through a gap just into the Southport half and was off up the left wing. A couple of attempted tackles failed to stop him and the try was scored. This was despite fears that his new haircut would sap all of his strength! Extra’s added by ‘Jonny’? - of course.
Some lapses in concentration late in the game and a couple of curious adjudications allowed Southport to add another 7 points and prevented Ormskirk from breaking through the 40 point mark. But with the final score of Southport 21 - Ormskirk 35, this was a great win against a good side and played in good spirits by both sets of lads.
