Pam takes on Widnes, with Nathan in support
Was this my favourite day in touch? I think it may have been. We were really lucky that all the teams came with the attitude of enjoying themselves first and winning second (though to be fair winning seemed to come a lot easier to Widnes than it did to the rest of the teams!).
I’d like at this point to make some comments about how the other teams played but, if i’m honest, I lost track a little while I was playing, coaching, refereeing and tournament organising so apologies if this write up is almost entirely “north wales touch”-centric. (for those confused we are playing as North Wales Touch!)
Lymm 3 – 10 North Wales Touch (scorers Matt x2, Eileen x2, Emily x2)*
I dont think us lads have been outscored by the ladies on the team before but we were shown the way to the scoreline by our debutant (and token wacky irisher) Eileen and team gob Emily. Eileen would end the day as our joint second top scorer this season, its sickening when people just take to the sport so easily. I’ve been playing for 8 years now and i’m still useless.
Moment of the game – Eileen getting two on her debut.
North Wales Touch 1 – 9 Widnes (scorer Nathan)
We were schooled a bit in this one, Widnes took full advantage of the team having a collective stinker; continually losing our way on turnovers, throwing daft passes and entirely forgetting how to run a squeeze defence. Widnes played with an intensity and speed we just couldnt cope with but its games like this one that will help us grow as a team. This game also saw Nathan begin to shine in his debut tournament, Nathan is great to coach and stuck to our patterns while some of the more experienced players (me included) lost their way a little.
Moment of the game – Sarah showing some proper gas chasing down one of the widnes lads, where did that come from!?! And Emily’s score stopping knee.
Sarah and Emily set up a score
North Wales Touch 5 – 10 Can’t Touch This (Scorers Matt, Aled, Jo, Tom)
This one was another guffing but didnt feel as bad as the Widnes defeat – We kept our shape and did well in attack but just got exposed by a all-male team with bags of gas well schooled by future Wales International (and North Wales own) Jon Dick. Our weakness on turnover ball was exposed again (some sessions on that coming up!) but it was a good performance.
Moment of the game – Toms Debut Score.
North Wales Touch 4 – 2 Warwick (Matt x3, Garry)
Warwick gave us a big of a hiding when we played them at the Manchester tournament in February, I think the score was 8 – 1, so for us to turn it around and grab a close victory was very pleasing. Warwick are a really nice group of players and I felt bad taking such enjoyment in our win over them. I scored our final Touchdown and proceeded to throw the ball in the air like we’d won the world cup, but i’d finally scored with a dive and couldnt help myself. To be honest it was good that so many of the team gave me a telling off for over-celebrating, though oddly enough it was one of the few occasions on the day that I wasnt fined.
Moment of the game – Telling Jo afterwards that we’d won as she once again raided our first aid box. (technically that was after the game)
Shell & Wxm Allstars 6 – 8 NWT (Matt x2, Alastair, Eileen, Sarah, Nathan)
This was probably the funnest game of the day as we took on a mix of players from Shell and some of our own players from Wrexham including the three amigos (or our “care in the community set”) Ed, Rich and Don. It was an end to end scorefest with neither team bothering to defend much but suddenly finding some extra energy when it came to attacking (funny that).
Moment of the game – Either Iain dropping an easy pass for a score or Eileen trying to work out where the scoreline was!
Things I learned
Too often the blokes on the team go hiding on the wrong wing leaving the girls to do all the running about on defense, its not cricket!
We go to sleep on turnovers
We attack pretty well
Don’t put Emily in charge of fines
Player of the tournament – Nathan
Vinnie from the Crusaders hands Nathan his Trophy
2011 Facts
We’ve played 8 games this year. Winning six and losing 2. (not bad considering we lost 18 on the bounce in 2009!)
Top Scorer is Matt with 11, joint second are Eileen and Aled with 3 each.
We’ve scored 40 and conceded 35.
