Generous Keyworth almost come unstuck!

Unfortunately, they hadn’t expected their team captain to adopt such a Corinthian spirit and donate large numbers of Keyworth players to the Ollerton cause, including himself.

With an equality of numbers, uncontested scrums and the home side’s desire to run at players rather than space, Ollerton found themselves closely contesting a game they had no real right to be in.

Keyworth started strongly with former junior player Adam Sheen, returning to the fold for the first time in the senior ranks, catching the kick-off and making a storming 20m charge through the Ollerton pack. This inspired every other Keyworth forward to attempt exactly the same tactic from first whistle to last (and believe me, there were a lot of whistles!).

Main cause of the excessive use of said Acme Thunderer, was Darryl Bornoffside Jones, who whilst wearing an Ollerton shirt for the first half, was in fact Keyworth’s most productive player. By continually finding himself on the wrong side of the ball, he presented Keyworth with 4 penalty kicks. Fortunately for Ollerton, none of these were within kickable range i.e. 15m out in front of the posts.

Despite Keyworth’s dominance, the sides turned round level at half-time without troubling the scorers. The second half was an altogether different affair. For a start, points were scored! Mark King eventually eluded the close attentions of the space stifling Ollerton back-line to drive over from about 10m out. He then converted his own try, for the first time in his long and illustrious career. Ollerton responded at the death with a mazy run from their outside centre, Lewis, who dived over in the corner. The failed conversion sparing Keyworth’s blushes.

So, Pennant points won and lots of positives:
Wayne Jowett was Keyworth’s man of the match with his bullocking runs (yes I have spelt that right!)
John Cooper played his first half of the season, albeit for Ollerton
Tom Bradshaw’s line-out throws continue to improve
Lee Broadhead made more pick-ups than a student disco
Chris Hutchinson had another cracking game at scrum-half
Big thanks to all those who played for Ollerton, with the exception of the captain, who threw more dummies than an entire playgroup! Mind you, he did remember to buy the Haribo as a pre-match energy zap (it didn’t work!) and was named Ollerton’s man of the match by the Referee’s Assessor!

Bizarre day, all in all, but nearly 30 guys got to play a close fought game, played in a great spirit and nobody got hurt. Who won? Rugby did!