Leos 3s bosh battling Baildon

Captain Chaos took a backseat this week as Cranfield had the stabilisers taken off, was given the book and took full control of selection etc.

Nick did well to put out a strong team despite losing Cadgey to Elephant flu on sat am, very un Cadgey like behaviour. Especially as he turned up for a beer later on and was then off out to Barnsley to watch some band ! So he can’t have been that ill after all !!

Jason, Lovers and Niall nearly did not arrive at the game as Niall in his new Golf GTI took an insane risk at a crossroads. He just about made it as his passengers howled in abject fear !! On the return journey as he thought about doing it again, Lovers firmly told him “ Don’t you ******** dare !! “

The pitch in Baildon was crisp to say the least ! ie half frozen ! After some debate we all agreed to play and see how it went, some of us slightly reluctantly.

Leos started very well with the pack once again leading the way. Poll, Hill and Bebb on his return from injury all drove well with ball in hand. Jo playing at 9 linked well to the backs and Blakey brought his catching hands so all was well. Lovers crashed it up at 12 and generally Leos made good ground all over the pitch. From this pressure amongst the forwards Andy Hill crashed over from close range. Blakey missed the con from out wide.

Baildon came back with good carries by their large 12 who stepped his way through several tackles, their 6 also ran hard as Leos seemed a little reluctant to put the hits in. Only some last ditch cover tackling prevented a home score. Leos scrum dominated the set piece pushing the larger front row off their own ball time and again. Credit to Capell who was at prop and did a sterling job in the scrum all day. Bebb also showed his class in the tight and drove well in the loose. The lineout was ok but did not quite reach the very high standards of last week. This was partly due to slightly windy conditions.

All this pressure led to a penalty try from several drives close to the Baildon line. Jason had tweaked his groin in the cold conditions so ceded the kicking duties to Lovers. Slightly surprisingly his right boot was mostly accurate both for touch and at goal. Baildon started to get a bit grumpy at being behind to a 3rd team and late tackles and cheap shots were evident.
Halftime arrived with Leos a couple of scores up and the call was for more hard work in defence and to keep our cool.
The second half started Leos again were on the front foot. From quick ball Jason fed his backs. Quick hands from Lovers, Niall and Herring led to Dean being set free on the outside. His natural pace and strength saw him score a really good try. This helped to banish some of the memories of some poor handling last week ! By now Herring the diddy doc was making huge inroads whenever he got the ball as his speed and elusiveness was too much for the home defence. Ben Clements ran hard all day playing on the wing making good yards and busting tackles.
From yet more good pick and go from the Leos forwards, with Hemsley now at full throttle, Bebb nipped through a gap from close range to score. Lovers popped over the extras and then things kicked off. Baildon were upset by being behind in the game and had not really looked like scoring. One of their forwards stamped on Poll, Captain Cranfield stepped in to try and protect the prone Poll. As he was fairly helpless on the floor the slightly daft home forward repeatedly punched Nick. The ref made the only call available to him as this had been blatant and brainless behaviour. A Red card was brandished and tempers calmed a little. An irate Lovers was insistent if any more punches were thrown he was walking off. This was partly due to the cheap shots that he and Niall were taking far too often.

This caused Poll to get very cross, saying nothing he simply smashed anything that moved. We observed him willing the oppo to take tap penalties so he could monster the ball carrier. One such tackle was extraordinary as we all heard the impact as the Baildon player was stopped in his tracks.

Jason retired hurt and in a reshuffle Niall went to 10 and Andy Hill stepped into the unfamiliar 13 spot. One comedy moment then insued as Niall called a dummy scissors scissors. Complete confusion and abject panic appeared on Andys face ! we settled for simple hands instead. This led to Herring again running riot on a superb run. As he approached the last would be tackler he elected to chip it ahead, the kick screwed off his boot and almost went backwards straight into touch.

As the game entered the final quarter Leos again scored another well taken try. From quick ball Niall and Lovers zipped the ball out to Andy at 13 who ran a good line to burst through some tired home tackling to score our final try of the day. Lovers slotted the con to maintain his 100 % record of 3 out of 3 ! nobody was more surprised than the kicker himself !

The final score was Leos 31 – Baildon 0.

To beat a 2nd team to nil in their own backyard was a very good effort on a hard pitch in very cold conditions. Again the forwards set the platform with Poll quietly leading the way with huge hits all day. He was pipped to Man of the Match by The Diddy Doc Pete Herring who created havoc whenever he got the ball. He also set up Deans try. This seemed doubly appropriate as after the game he announced that he and his good lady wife are expecting their second child. Congratulations to both.

We retired to the Fox and Hounds for a couple of beers and were joined by the miraculously restored Cadgey. This was an enjoyable day out despite the hard pitch, freezing weather and scary car journeys !
Onwards and upwards to Yarnbury next weekend.

One point of order for Captain Cranfield, he managed to forget to organise someone to buy the beer and he also forgot about the shirts ! Luckily he was rescued by a couple of old heads who bought the beer and picked up the shirts. So maybe the stabilisers will have to go back on for a bit as he gets to grips with the sometimes difficult task of being a Leos Captain !

Score Leos 31- Baildon 0

Try
Hill 2, Chapman D 1, Bebb 1, Penalty Try 1
Con

Lovers 3

Team Bebb, Barton, Capell, Gopichandran, Marshall, Poll, Hill, Cranfield, Jo, Blakey,Lovers, Monk, Clemens, Chapman, Herring, Hemsley.