Saturday 29th November 2008


Coventrians 15 - 8 Keresley

Covents’ Courage Cracks Ks Concrete

Coventrians beat Keresley in another tough, hard fought encounter at a Baltic Black Pad today. Unfortunately the lads’ brave performance was overshadowed by the terrible news about our great friend and fellow “Covent” Jeff Platt. I’m sure everyone associated with the club will want to dedicate this fine win to Jeff’s memory.

Covents kicked off into the mist and immediately began to establish superiority up front with the pack mauling and driving and in the 5th minute won a second scrum against the head. No ten man rugby this though as in the 7th minute the three-quarters had several runs at Keresley’s solid defence.

Covents kept attacking and a 10th minute break from belligerent Brum-half Carter was bundled into touch with three minutes later the pack driving Keresley off their ball only to be sloppily turned over. As the game see-sawed, Swaff took good ball at a lineout in the 18th minute and with Kev Walters breaking through two tackles, set up Phil Jones who passing to John Field saw him unfortunately drop the soap when the line beckoned. In the 20th minute, a Covents scrum in Keresley’s 22 produced a penalty which Deadeye Douglas struck cleanly to open the scoring, 3 – 0.

This only served to galvanise the K-men who came back at Covents from the restart by driving deep into blue and white territory and as the referee blew for a scrum, a scuffle broke out that was more Primark than Prada in the handbag stakes. In the 32nd minute Covents scored a good try when the forwards, with great driving and inter-play from Kieran, Carl and DJ put in John Field who made no mistake this time by dotting down. Deadeye proved he’s human by missing the conversion but Covents were looking good for their 8 – 0 lead.

Just after the score, with Keresley counter-attacking, Paul Brindley took a knock to the head and lip which must have rendered him temporarily senseless for as Lauren approached him, he never mentioned his groin. He was eventually replaced by Rowan and at half-time Mikey Kiburi came on for Joe Swaffield who at 18 continues to improve and underline what a good young find he is for Covents' back row.


The mist thickened in the second-half and Springy, toying with switching to floodlights, finally decided not to as we’ve only got three and they’re 150 yards from the pitch. The game continued in the same vein with both sides pounding each other looking for a break and it came for Keresley on 56 minutes as they pulled back to 8 – 3 with a penalty. Two minutes later though, from a scrum, Jones the boot put up a delightfully high and hanging kick which Billy Whizz (Rowan) collected and grounded in the bowling green corner. Deadeye slotted the extras with a beauty from out wide to make it 15 – 3.

With the blue and whites scenting victory and the frustrating refereeing decisions now going against the Ks, things got niggly and on 63 minutes a large scuffle broke out which looked like 25 blokes on Strictly Come Dancing. Keresley tempers ran even higher three minutes later as one of their flankers saw red, directed a few Anglo-Saxon words at the referee and then saw red again, this time in card form. Down to fourteen men and yapping a lot, Keresley, to their credit, came back at Covents and scored in the corner in the 79th minute. Fortunately for Covents, the conversion was poor and left the score at 15 – 8. From the restart, Ks knocked on and Covents kept possession until the final whistle confirmed a thoroughly deserved victory.

Saturday was another performance of heart, tenacity and growing confidence from the boys as they continued to banish early season blues. Everyone involved in yesterday’s victory deserves praise and that includes Coach Mitch who has stuck at it through the thin and is now enjoying a bit of thick. If anyone can explain what the hell a “POD” is, answers on a postcard please.

Postscript - After reading Carl's eloquent post in the guest book I wanted to say, yeah you're right mate - this is a different Covents now, most of the team are back and we can do ourselves justice finally - if we lose, we go down fighting but turn up here thinking you've won at your peril. This was illustrated on Saturday by a great attitude - Woz proving he's not quite ready to go out to grass, the rest of the pack awesome, driven on by our Brum-half, three quarters pacy and tackling hard, Deadeye living up to his nickname - keep it going boys!

Man of the Match – This week it went to Kyle Bonsor for his efforts in the 2nd team game. He stood on a chair (we still couldn’t see him) and while trying to sink his pint the ungrateful sod proceeded to regurgitate most of it. This allergic reaction to free alcohol has resulted in him being re-named Kylie.

Tit of the Match – This week Rich Walters for not knowing the rules of the game and embarrassing everyone by bellowing “Numbers” at a lineout - he did not spill any free alcohol. . .

Bedworth 3rds 51 – 14 Coventrians 2nds


The second team travelled to Bedworth to take on their thirds in a league game. I suppose one of the great advantages of being a retired, old fart is not having to go there and play rugby. Some of the newer lads discovered the “Bedrock experience” yesterday as they went down bravely 14 – 51.

Highlights of the match for Covents were when Dick (Harry) Potter broke from the base popped it up for Kyle who passing to Les Scholes, watched him cut inside, chip over the full-back and then ran in to finish off the stylish move himself which Ben Davies converted. Covents other try was scored by student, Jimmy Hill (I kid you not) who broke through three tackles before scoring under the posts with again, Ben converting. Great stuff from Jim, just got to work on the beard now mate.

There were 3 yellow cards in the match, 1 for Kyle and 2 for Bedworth who although pushing us back frequently in the scrums didn’t have it all their own way in the lineout as Digger dominated. This led to Digger getting a “dig” at the end but the locals assured him afterwards that it was only a friendly greeting.