Solid ‘Street Leave Lutterworth Languishing In Defeat As ‘Deadeye’ Gets A Dead Eye.   

With many regular 3rd XV stalwarts absent without leave (in the main opting to go Twickenham to watch England grind down Scotland later that day), it was a combination of “old” (skipper-for-the-day Pete ‘Evergreen’ Branston), “experience” (‘Sat Nav Downsie’, Stewart Crawford and the returning Andrew ‘Greggs’ Skene) and “youth” (the rest of them) that headed off to the Warwickshire / Leicestershire border for this friendly fixture against Lutterworth RFC 2nds to be played on an excellent pitch on a deceptively chilly but sunny early-Spring Saturday afternoon. Aided and abetted by the “very old” management team of Danny ‘Tinkerman’ Rowan (in his case at least in terms of miles on the clock, if not actual years), Rick ‘MFC’ Skene, Simon Buttriss, Irish International Brendan’s Grandad and Bill ‘Healing Hands’ Busby and with some of the team having survived the monotony of ‘Sat Nav Downsie’s’ non-stop gibbering offering directional advice on the outbound journey (which he still maintains was the quicker option than the return journey plotted by the modern piece of kit in young Skene’s flash new car), ‘Street arrived at Ashby Lane, Bitteswell in good spirit to be greeted by a home side wearing very similar colours to their own, the host’s decision to wear their shirts inside out being reversed by the referee just before kick-off to avoid even greater confusion.

In a first for the season ‘Evergreen’ lost the toss and the hosts opted to play down the slight slope with the wind in their favour, no doubt with the intent of pressuring the young ‘Street side and scoring a hatful of points in the first half and hoping that this would discourage the youthful visitors from running at them too much later in in the game when they tired. However, this turned out to be a forlorn hope, and from the kick-off the Rugby Road men pinned their hosts back in their own 22, with Will Vennard, Clinton Ndlovu and Pete ‘The Pole’ Wisniewski in particular to the fore for the forwards, working hard to win and retain possession, with only strong defensive work from the hosts preventing a very early score. After five minutes, the inevitable breakthrough came, and Pete ‘The Pole’ clattered through the home side’s defence to score the first of his three tries on the day. With Callum Abbott adding the extras, ‘Street were 7 – 0 to the good and looking strong against an experienced Lutterworth side. From the restart, however, it was clear that the hosts had no intention of rolling over easily and tested ‘Street’s defensive qualities admirably for several minutes before a textbook line out take from Danny Havart resulted in a good feed from inexperienced scrum-half Mitch Hancox to release his backs, with ‘Sudden’ Sam Taylor receiving the ball out wide, sprinting 70 metres and crashing over in the corner for an unconverted try to take the score to 12 – 0 in the visitors’ favour. The hosts kicked off again and sensing that the way this game would be won would be to avoid becoming embroiled in maul after maul against the home side’s large forwards, ‘Street’s forwards and backs combined effectively with strong running from Jamie McDonnell-Watts, Robbie Brown, Brendan ‘Irish International’ McGuire and Stewart Crawford in particular forcing the Leicestershire side on the back foot. A deft pick-up from the base of a subsequent scrum by ‘Evergreen’ and quick feed to Pete ‘The Pole’ resulted in the Polish youngster dashing off on a fine 25 metre solo effort, the resultant unconverted try taking ‘Street in to a 17 – 0 lead. The hosts continued to play with endeavour and scored a deserved converted try of their own before the half-time break, which served as a timely reminder to ‘Street that the game wasn’t yet won and that they needed to strengthen up their defensive play if they were to remain on top through the second half. Half-Time: Lutterworth 3rd XV 7 Broadstreet 3rd XV 17.

The hosts kicked off the second half, and ‘Street, bolstered by half-time substitutes Ryan Taylor and ‘Sat Nav Downsie’ (who, by the way continued to spout directional advice throughout the next 40 minutes, the journey home and long in to the following morning), ran the ball back in to the home side’s territory, and with ‘Greggs’, Darroll ‘Deadeye Soon to Receive a Dead Eye’ Watts and the effervescent Paddy Hughes playing an increasingly influential role in the game, it wasn’t long before the Rugby Road men had their hosts under the cosh. A quick tap penalty taken by ‘Evergreen’ led to a pumped-up ‘Greggs’ breaking a couple of tackles, with the ball eventually being fed to ‘Sudden Sam Taylor’ who sped away for his second try, converted by ‘Deadeye’ to take ‘Street in to a seemingly comfortable 24 – 7 lead. However, the host side came storming back from the restart to score a try of their own to take the score back to 24 – 12 in Street’s favour, and with twenty minutes left on the clock, victory was far from certain for the men from Rugby Road, particularly given the strong running by their veteran no. 8 and stylish no. 13. Broadstreet stepped things up over the last quarter of the game and managed the niggle that was creeping in to the game well, the only casualty being ‘Deadeye’ who having clattered in to his skipper from a Lutterworth 22 drop-out and knocking on the ball despite ‘Evergreen’ putting out a clear call for the ball got his just deserves a few seconds later when trying to atone for his misplaced enthusiasm as he used his face to tackle a high-flying Lutterworth knee and came out sporting a real ‘Dead Eye’, photographs posted later that evening on Facebook having him look like an extra in a Rocky movie. Shortly after a minor fracas between the two sides Danny Havart, resplendent in a new pair of go faster boots (or based on the size 14 he takes, perhaps “boats” would be a better description?) sped away from a scrum for another fantastic ‘Street solo effort, scoring out wide, too far wide for ‘One Eye Deadeye’ to add the extras, but nonetheless re-establishing some breathing space for the Broadstreet boys with the score moving to 29 – 12 in their favour. There was still time for one more with Pete ’The Pole’ capping an outstanding personal individual performance in scoring ‘Street’s sixth try, and his third, Callum Abbott adding the extras to complete a highly satisfactory afternoon for the visitors. Full-Time: Lutterworth 3rd XV 12 Broadstreet 3rd XV 36.  

Team: 15 Darroll ‘Deadeye / Dead Eye’ Watts; 14 Paddy Hughes, 13 Andrew ‘Greggs’ Skene, 12 Stewart Crawford, 11, ‘Sudden’ Sam Taylor; 10 Callum Abbott, 9 Mitch Hancox; 1 Jamie McDonnell-Watts, 2 Clinton Ndlovu, 3 Robbie Brown; 4 Will Vennard, 5 Brendan ‘Irish International’ McGuire; 6 Pete ‘The Pole’ Wisniewski, 7 Danny Havart, 8 Pete ‘Evergreen’ Branston ©.  16 ‘Sat Nav Downsie’, 17 Ryan Taylor.  

Management: Danny ‘Tinkerman’ Rowan, Brendan’s Grandad, Rick ‘MFC’ Skene, Simon Buttriss, Bill ‘Healing Hands’ Busby.  

Man-of-the-Match: Pete ‘The Pole’.

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