Saturday 14 October 2006

Anniesland Stags (17) v Cartha Queens Park ( 17)
1. Bob McNaught, 2. Jon Brown , 3. Max McFarlane, 4. Andrew Dewar (CQP), 5. David Ridley , 6. Jamie McVey, 7. David Tait, 8. Andrew Beverley
9. Kenny Weir , 10. David Gourlay , 11. James Ogilvy, 12. Paul Taylor , 13. Sam Makusha, 14. Jim Taggart (CQP), 15. Brendan Moriarty

Referee: Lewis Gracey--Earlston HS and Melrose

Both teams took to the curling pond on a sun soaked afternoon . Unfortunately due to a mix up a referee was not present, thankfully two members of the stags team decided to take up the challenge. Yet again due to call up or lack of notification the stags had only 13 players. This meant that they had to borrow two players from CQP leaving them with no substitutes. Note: In 4 games the Anniesland stags have utilised 40 players .

Due to some last minute details (a lack of whistle) the game started 10 mins late. With the stags playing their normal game positions of back or forward they kicked off with the sun behind them. After just five minutes of play Andrew Beverley scored from a quickly taken tap penalty. Then, a fter the tenth minute CQP managed to put some passes together and put Donnie Black over the line to level the scores. CQP then went further ahead when some poor scr ummaging from the stags allowing uncontrolled ball out the back of the scrum for Ian McKenzie to pounce on and this was duly converted.

The second half saw a change of referee and positions for the stags, Kenny Weir puckered his lips, Lewis Gracey moved to flanker, David Tait to centre and Paul Taylor to scrum half. This obviously had an immediate effect as concentrated pressure from the stags forced a CQP lineout on their 5 yard line. As the hooker took a quick throw in David Ridley, with the anticipation of an alcoholic at closing time, intercepted the ball and scored a try, celebrated in David's usual muted fashion. The game then took an ugly turn as Bob McNaught popped out of the scrum and a friendly exchange of handbags followed, the game resumed after referee Weir had a word with both front rows. Then 5 minutes from time Paul Taylor finished a backs move under the uprights and it was converted by David Gourlay (at last). However with the second last play of the game, CQP took a catch and drive at the stags 5 yard line and proceeded to muscle th eir way over the line for Keith Pender to level the score. It was then unconverted by the CQP centre. The game was then restarted only for CQP to gather the ball and, under the bizarre miscalculated assumption that they were leading, kick it into touch to end the game! Final Score 17 – 17.

This article was posted on 16-Oct-2006, 16:22 by Hugh Barrow.