Warriors Touch Tournament
Report fom Touch Supremo Ally C

Tongue in cheek report on the touch tourney,
Ally





Late call offs from Mike Rainey, Stevie Gordon and Dave Millard meant a call up for Jamie McKinnon and a reduced squad of ten players. Jamie immediately qualified for the RED underpants award as he didn’t actually have his kit with him.


An administrative mix up meant that we had to wait until almost 1.30 before we played our first game – professional staff obviously couldn’t work out that 8 pools couldn’t play at the one time on 6 pitches! The first game was against Dalziel who fielded a very young squad against us and it was experience which was rewarded with a 5-1 victory and a solid start. There are actually strategies you can employ in touch and the Hawks boys were quite adept at utilising these for short periods at a time. Fitness as opposed to just being able to run, was another determining factor.


Hawks had the benefit of a rest before their next tie while Newton Stewart had to back up their game and yet again fitness told in the latter stages as hawks eased away by 6-1. It was at this point that we were becoming aware of John Fitzpatrick’s eye for the intercept – “Burglar Bill” eat your heart out!


Again the benefit of a break before the game was an advantage but Allan Glen’s certainly exploited a tendency by some of the Hawks players to over-elaborate (Stu Smith!) and a high scoring game was eventually won 7-3.


At this stage the tug o’war became a distraction – we had originally declined to take part but the manager was over-ruled by the players – mutiny! East Kilbride provided firm resistance in the first pull but sort of gave in on the second, managing to put Hawks on their backsides for the only time in the day and getting the biggest laugh of the day.


After another delay due to chaotic organisation, the quarter final was eventually started against East Kilbride who proved to be stuffier opposition than in the tug o’ war. Duffy and Snoops marshalled the troops and with Fitzy getting one of his trademark tries a 3-1 win was recorded.


The semi-final against Hills was a good game and Hills played some excellent touch rugby and it wasn’t until the last 3-4 minutes that Hawks pulled away to win 5-1. This set us up for a final against Ayr but first there was the tug o’war final against Newton Stewart who deservedly beat a rather lightweight Hawks team to win £50.



The final was a tense affair between two well matched teams with plenty of cut and thrust. Hawks, by now down to 9 seviceable players due to Jamie McKinnon’s “incapacity”, used their subs well and rotated the squad on and off to maintain freshness. A try by Stuart Low was all that separated the teams at the end and when referee Sam Pinder, who was by far the best referee in the tournament, blew his whistle the winners were Hawks.


As befits his modest nature Stuart Low assisted Steven Duffy in lifting the trophy and was duly rewarded with a dousing in ice water!


Thanks to the Warriors for a great afternoon which we hope will be repeated. All the teams entered into the spirit of the event

This article was originally posted on 30-Jul-2006, 19:10 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 30-Jul-2006, 21:35.