Southport Firsts ran up their third successive win last Saturday eventually overcoming a gutsy bottom-of-the-table Buxton 29-17, scoring five tries in the process to earn a bonus point to move above Oswestry into seventh place. The match was good value for the large crowd, the mood matching the vibrancy of the visitors bright red, yellow, and blue shirts, surely the most colourful in the competition. But fair play to the Buxton who were anything but whipping boys and defied their lowly position by making the home side work very hard for the victory.

The highlights were a Danny Banks hat trick of tries, his safe hands perversely matched by his dodgy kicking boots, a five-pointer for another rising star Forest Bailey, and a final flourish from Matty Astwood in front of the club house. But three out of the five conversions were missed keeping the lid on the score enabling Buxton to stay in touch with three well worked tries of their own.

The Second team had an unpleasant surprise at Preston Grasshoppers 4s or, as more likely according to several players, Preston Grasshoppers 1s & 4s as several of the home side seemingly bore an uncanny resemblance to members of the elite First team squad whose home match was postponed when visitors Westoe failed to turn up. On this basis as far as Southport was concerned the match turned into something of a farce although in the circumstances a 0-31 defeat was a respectable effort by Martin Bailey’s boys. To be fair a more genuine Preston 4s had already won at Waterloo Road earlier in the season so it was always going to be a tough fixture, but despite these set backs Southport still sit one place above them in the league. Funny old game!

That was about it as far as the senior teams were concerned last weekend with no games for the Thirds, Colts, or Ladies, although there was plenty of activity with the juniors and minis on Sunday morning the pick of the bunch being the under 11s beating Tyldesley and West Park in as three way challenge in St Helens.

This weekend the Firsts and Seconds have the pleasure of their counterparts at Ormskirk away and home respectively, whilst the Thirds travel to Birkenhead Park 3s. Graham Riley makes his long awaited comeback from injury on the bench at Waterloo Road, surely worth flocking down for. Again there are no games scheduled for the Colts or Ladies, but Sunday morning will be busy with visiting sides from Ashton-under-Lyne and several from Liverpool Collegiate.

Squad selections (all kick offs 2.15pm)

FIRST TEAM v Ormskirk (a)

1Ian Smith 2Liam Webb 3Jamie Church 4George Baumber5Henry Brain 6David Gairn 7Gareth Lang(c) 8Jonah Jones 9Joe Mawdsley10Danny Banks 11Chris Drescher 12Forest Bailey 13Clarke Walton14Jacob McMullen 15Oliver Brown 16Craig Pacey 17Ben Cresswell 18Jordan Caldwell

SECOND TEAM v Ormskirk (h)

1John Gillow 2Tim Holland 3Mathew Purnell 4Dean Skelton 5James Smallwood 6Callum Monaghan7Rob White 8Neil Bayliff 9Dan Cresswell 10William Greenwood11Matty Woods 12Martin Bailey(c) 13Joe Gerrard14Will Scott-Abbott 15Rik Potter 16Jason Fitzpatrick 17Graham Riley18Francis McGeown

THIRD TEAM v Birkenhead Park (a)

1Dan Aindow 2James Thomas3Tom Smith 4Tommy McEvitt5Juz Griffiths 6Kristian Griffiths7Mark Garner Jones8James Doran(c) 9David Atherton 10Joe Spencer11Eddie Fashioni12Steve Summerfield13Mark Brunskill14Callum McNeil15Tom Peacock 16Johan Anderson 17Daniel Capps18James Holloway 19Josh Hyde 20Luke Summerfield21Sam Tarbuck22Adam Stretch23Liam Palmer 24Phil Western

Match Reports

Firsts c/o Buxton web site (make what you will of this! Not quite as I saw it or maybe a few too many Ruck & Mauls?)

Could Have Been Worse

Buxton Beaten in More Ways Than One

Beaten on the day, beaten up on the day, by a team with a physicality that has no place in rugby, beaten by the referee, a yellow card for two blatent punches, agrees he was sin binned for striking an opponent!! and then walks off afterwards, a SRUFC member for 35 years, interesting one that, not that I am complaning obout the refereeing, or the fact that we had two players leave the field injured and finished with 14!!

The facts are SRUFC butchered at least 2 great scoring moves as well as finishing several more, one an excellent try from a poor Buxton touch find, I think we found it once!!

The issue is simple, we can compete up front, but not outside of 9 until you get to the wing, so thereby lays the problem and no amount of words can change that. Bit difficult to carry the ball out all day as you have a backrow at 10 I suppose.

SURFC out smarted us, were street wise, I think it used to be called cheating, but hey ho we all did it, but mainly they rattled our boys with a level of dirty tricks more akin to rugby league when Ediie Wearing was commentating, still thats they way they play and they beat us on the day with some gas to spare, given the tries they missed out wide.

Frank, and its my opinion, entitled to that I think and as they say its not over until the fat lady sings!! or man to be PC. So if anyone knows a large person tell them that.

Under 11s

Southport Brave the Cold to Secure Double Victory by Neil Crew

Southport’s Under 11s completed their Lancashire Cup qualifying campaign with two victories on Sunday at West Park in what were generally agreed to be “Baltic” conditions.

With Head Coach Steve Hart still away on alpine manoeuvres, Assistant Matt Palmer led the team to a chilly Eccleston Hill, to take on both the hosts and Tyldesley. With a couple of players also absent for half term or illness, it provided opportunities for other players to make their mark.

Taking on Tyldesley first, who they had met a few weeks previously, Southport made an uncertain start, with the Tyldesley pack dominant and moving the ball well. The cold weather was no doubt the cause of the high number of handling errors, but Southport’s tackling particularly from Fraser Jones at centre and Daniel Ball and Peter Crew on the wing, kept Tyldesley at bay.

Having absorbed five minutes of opening pressure, Southport started to make some progress in the Tyldesley half, and it was Daniel Ball who capped one such excursion with a sharp move to open the scoring. Daniel Thompson added the conversion, but soon saw stars as his catch from the following kick off was followed by a pile driving tackle from a Tyldesley boy (perfectly timed). Thompson shook it off and was soon back in the thick of it though.

The game settled down into an attritional exchange, with both packs striving for the ascendancy; Sol Palmer and Charlie Turner were, as ever, willing to carry the ball out of trouble for Southport, and Richard Casselton and Zac Butcher also made notable breaks. Scrum half Jake Haworth had little clean ball to work with but was always busy at the breakdown.

Tyldesley were always threatening though, and eventually managed to break through the Southport line to make the score and level the tie with the conversion.

The second half continued in similar vein; both packs looking to carry the ball and then move the ball wide close to the line, but both defences offering up very few gaps. Tyldesley looked to have the better chances but it was a determined effort from Jones, now playing at full back, which saw Southport take the lead again. Jones also added the extra two.

The final stage of the game was largely played in the Southport half and their improvements in tackling over recent weeks gave them the edge to hold out against the Tyldesley attacks.

A game which Southport may well have surrendered earlier in the season was secured 14-7, and the coaches urged the squad to take the intensity into the second game against West Park, as in previous weeks they had lost the second tie having won the first. A great team performance, but Sol Palmer narrowly picked up the coaches Man of the Match award, with Turner, Butcher and Jones all mentioned in despatches.

The team seemed to have taken this message fully on board, as Jake Haworth broke away to open the score in the first minute (there were no conversions in this game).

Southport’s bigger pack were able to dominate the game, with Richard Casselton breaking through a number of tackles to cross the line for a second a few minutes later and Elliot Berisha also scoring his first try of the day to secure a 15-0 lead at half time.

West Park were one man short in the second half, but Southport opted to keep the ball tight instead of moving the ball wide. Lewis Peacock moved to scrum half and made a number of breaks, but West Park showed no sign of giving up the fight, and were able to keep Southport at bay on a number of occasions in the third quarter.

The final phase of the game saw Southport reassert their power up front, as Charlie Turner finally got the chance to run with ball in hand to cap a fine display, and Zac Butcher secured two late scores to crown a Man of the Match display.

A disciplined rather than expansive display in the second match, with little chance for the wingers to warm their hands on the ball, and but a clean sheet in defence, with no let-up in their concentration was a positive step forward for the squad.

Southport wait to see if they will get the chance to continue in the cup, but whatever happens the boys have enjoyed their introduction to the county cup and are now looking to carry the good form into the rest of the season with tournaments at the Vale of Lune, Windermere and of course their own event in May.

* Ormskirk is noted for its gingerbread, hence Ormskirk RUFC being nick-named the gingerbread men: for the record here is the recipe of the late Margaret Ashcroft from Rufford from the Holmeswood Millennium Cook Book (something for Lynn Walton to get her teeth into?)

This old original 150 years old recipe makes 50 biscuits.

Cream together 1/2 lb of butter and soft sugar, then add in this order 1/4 lb melted syrup, 1/4 lb treacle, a pinch of cinnamon, 1/4 oz ground ginger, 2 oz grated lemon peel and gradually mix in 11/4 lb flour. Rollout to thickness of 1/4 inch, cut with circular cutter, cook in moderate oven for 1/2 hour until golden brown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5aUAxK1ec8

** Maxwell's silver hammer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIMGgBLOwfg

Enjoy!