Sat 16 Oct 2021, 15:00
The day started positively with 17 players declaring their availability and the sun shining brightly.
Then the cry offs started and we were gradually reduced to 12 and that included Harvey bringing his dad Jason to make up the number.
The news filtered through on Facebook that DK seconds had been cried off. "Stiched uo like a kipper" was how Garry Mills described it.
They started to arrive and the procession went on and on and on. We lost count at around 25 as it was too depressing. And seeing some of them wearing 1st team socks added to our general feeling of malaise.
So Loran went in to negotiate and came back with a few litle Lorans to make up the numbers. Skippy was having a word in the ref's ear and Colin and Daffyd took over the running of the line.
Then the fun started! Steve Wills demonstrated a delihtful backward somersault as he went a little high on one of the lumbering beasts. We tackled manfully for all of two minutes before one of their nippy little boys skipped through for the first try of the afternoon. Despite a lengthy and exaggerated preparation the conversion went wide.
5 minutes later it was deja-vu all over again as the score mounted to 0-10.
Things were looking grim until Harvey Habgood, trying his hand at 10, threw a delightful dummy, before feeding little Loran Dudley, to cross unopposed for Redditch. This lifted the home teams spirits and eventually they earned a Yellow Card as DK killed the ball once too often. The advantage was short lived as Redditch messed up their penalty and gave one away to move possession back to Dudley. From a scrum on their own side of halfway DK worked the blind side and had too much pace and numbers for the Redditch defence to stream over under the posts.
Redditch attacked the kick off and after a good run down the left wing by Jason Robinson, they took quick ball from the ruck and spun it wide to the right for Little Loran King to cross over taking the scroe to 12-17. Redditch held out well but, as half time approached, the DK version of Fred Astaire stepped every way imaginable before crossing with a trail of defenders in his wake. Very tricky and not really playing fair. So at half time Redditch were still in the game at 12-22.
The second half was all one way traffic as DK ran in a further 5 tries. Some were against the run of play as Redditch tried hard. Harvey also joined the backward somersault club, whilst Jason Robinson was heard to shout "I'm not going in there" as he followed up on a kick off that was caught by a giant who was heading at speed in Jason's direction. Discretion was the better part of valour as Jason decided that a more experienced player should make that tackle.
Jason was in the action moments later as Redditch pressed the visitors line. A quick heel and dash up the blindside saw Jason unmarked and the try scoring pass sail behind him into touch. We could blame one of the little Lorans for a poor pass, or, perhaps, more work needed on catching for our novice winger!
Meanwhile the real Loran was doing some great front of the lineout defence as DK kept trying a short line move. The Redditch scrums improved as the day wore on taking 3 against the head and showing some good stediness on ther own feed.
The final score was 12-49 to the visitors but the day didn't end there.
Harvey saw fit to spend the match fees on a jug of beer for the visitors who, in turn, held a whip around for the Ash Mooney collection, raiing over £100. Well done lads.
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