Colts win again

By Elliott Josypenko
January 30 2005

Bit of a sticky pitch, not quite as sticky as sticky the sticky stick insect on a sticky bun, but pretty sticky all the same. Derby seemed to appreciate this from the off with some well place kicks into the corners that stuck in spongy miry surface.

Their large pack started extremely well rolling the ball well and securing 100% line-out possession, this led very quickly to a rolling maul try on 10 mins. This seemed to be the wake up call the Bees pack needed, they responded really well with Nigel and Lee to the fore. Securing more ball Bees forwards and backs looked dangerous with ball in hand, and suddenly Derby were conceding yards around the breakdown and out wide. Bees first try came from lovely mud skimming grubber kick from veteran centre Will well touched down by Bruce wide out. Bees scored again through Nigel just before half-time after some good forward pressure. In between times a Derby player had earnt 10 mins. in the bin for charging fully 30 meters across the field to get involved in some handbags, typical forward he arrived late but the intent was clear, good decision by the ref.

Bees made some changes as 1/2 time with the "hamster" coming on at scrum-half, 10 mins. into the half, Luke Smith and Woody also came on. By this stage Derby were flagging, so Bees giant 2nd row Ryan "volunteered" to play for Derby, he was just about their most impressive forward during the second period that Bees simply dominated. With a fair share of possession Bees started to rack up tries, Luke after some fine handling, Nigel with fine No.8 pick up, Bruce with fine outside break in the centre. Some greedy play and poor decision making stopped Bees scoring further tries but they ran out comfortable winners 25-5 (no conversions made from the swamp). Nigel had 10 mins well earnt rest for some poor play but the Bees forwards coped well without the talented but indisciplined no.8.

Performance: 8 out of 10, competed really well with the big Derby pack, excellent scrapping for the loose ball and again great with ball in hand, some of the support play was excellent

Mars bar moment:
"he's fallen in the water"(Little Jim-Goons attached, best impression next week wins a club tie!), for once the miserable Geordie person had good reason for his melancholy, he is considering another sport:
maybe cricket, he seemed to like the ducks
maybe swimming now he has lost his water-wings
maybe angling after his wading
and for musical background Eva Cassidy "Wade in the Water"? Maybe "Bridge over troubled water"? "Cry me a river?" "In too deep?", or finally "Holding back the River" by Wet Wet Wet? Fair play he did recover the ball from the River Derwent after claiming he fell in the river Trent (not bad for a Geography major!).

For more details see attached picture!

Next fixture
West Bridgeford away (near Nottingham Sunday kick-off time to be confirmed)
Training with Solihull Mon / Weds 7am
Well done to Bones and Rich B. on being signed up for Solihull for rest of season and the other lads who attended training this week.

Team:
Pablo, Steve (Woody), Will (Skids), Bruce, Rich, Andy, James (Sam), Lee, Nigel, Loz, Ben, Mike, Elliot, Ethan (Adam), Chris

Final Score
Derby 5 Bees 25

Season to date:
Played 11
Won 8
Lost 3
For 273
Against 161


Phil Millichap