KEYWORTH 2s BACK UP AND RUNNING!

As seems to happen with alarming regularity this season, the opposition made the trip with reduced numbers. Aylestone Athletic 3rds brought 10 men with them, which at least meant that all 30 players on both sides got to play a full game, which everybody desperately needed, having not played since 20 November last year.

There was ring-rust aplenty and mistakes galore from the Keyworth side, except when players donned an Aylestone shirt to even out the numbers, then they seemed to play out of their skins. Once again a depleted side has forced Keyworth to hand over their substitute players, prevented them exerting superiority through the scrummage and almost sneaked a totally undeserved victory. However, no sour grapes – playing the game is the important thing!

Keyworth started strongly when Mark Scott drove over close to the posts, from about 5m out. Unfortunately the kick was missed and Keyworth soon found themselves defending when they failed to cleanly field the kick-off. After a period of pressure, Aylestone finally crossed wide out and the scores were tied. They were unlucky not to go ahead when a charge down on a clearance kick saw the Aylestone hooker, with no one to beat, manage to knock-on just 10m out.

Renewed efforts from Keyworth saw young Tom Muncey cross in the corner after a very strong 35m run down the touchline after good supporting work from Alex Tsang. That’s how it stayed until half-time and Keyworth made a number of changes to the personnel who had played for Aylestone in the first half, enabling the captain and his son Jack, playing his first senior game for the club, to wear a Keyworth shirt together for the first time, a proud moment for both.

The Keyworth players in the Aylestone line-up in the second half proved to be extremely effective, the constant irritant that was Jon Cooper, the support play of debutant Phil Bennett (great rugby name!) and the strong running of James Muston all served to bring Aylestone back into contention and after levelling the scores, it was all 3 of the above who combined in putting the visitors into the lead with a length of the field try finished off by Muston after Keyworth had looked like scoring from a 5 yard scrum drive by Bradshaw.

With 8 minutes to go, Keyworth were looking down the barrel of an ignominious defeat. The captain exhorted his troops to give one last effort. They responded magnificently and after working their way downfield into the 22, a searing break from the enigmatic Jason Holland at outside half, resulted in a pass to centre Mark King who drove over from 12m to once again level the scores. The skipper had asked Santa Claus for a kicker on his Christmas list. Unfortunately his wishes remained unfulfilled and the conversion was again missed and the result was Keyworth’s second drawn game of the season.

A big thank you to the opposition for turning up and giving everybody what was a really good game in the end. It certainly blew away a lot of cobwebs and prepared everyone for Pennant action next week. A further thank you to half of the Keyworth players who put on an opposition shirt for half or more of the game. It is rumoured that the skipper has now played more minutes of rugby this season wearing an opposition shirt that he has done for Keyworth. Shame on him!

Other positive items of note, the strong midfield running of Tom Holmes, the straight running of wing, Aaron Browning, the driving charges of Adam Sheen, the guesting of the Cookemeister (great to see), the dominance, as always, of John Scott at the front of the lineout, although he was possibly eclipsed by the work of Jack Starr in the middle of the line, who was likened to a leaping pilchard for his work in securing the ball of both sides. Man of the Match award for Keyworth has to go to the ubiquitous James Maddocks, whose covering work and tackling belied his position of prop forward.

In a less positive vein, a couple of points – Mark King’s attempted kick to touch to end the first half would not have appeared out of place in a circus clown routine, such was its ineptitude and comedic value! Chris Mackintosh did some good work at scrum half and in midfield, but if his legs ran as strongly as his mouth, he’d cause teams even more difficulties! Finally young Alex Tsang leaving the field after a Keyworth score to engage in spit swapping with a very attractive young lady on the touchline was a heinous crime and I’m pleased to say the punishment meted out summarily in the clubhouse after the match was fully justified.

Overall, just great to see this mighty team back in harness again. Yes they all looked as if they’d eaten all of the family turkey, pudding, chocolates etc themselves, leaving nothing for the rest of their kith and kin, but hopefully they’ve run some of that off now and are ready to do battle with Mellish in next week’s Pennant fixture down at Widmerpool.