U8s A little too keen travelling to Matlock.

As the players and coaches arrived you could tell spring was in the air, horse-play was the flavour of the day.

The coaches arrived, and after some discussion and moving of kit. The right pitches were found. Then it was just the drawn-out process of stopping the boys wrestling in the mud and donkey rides!

Andy and Richard warmed up the squads, keeping the “high spirts” to a controllable level.

Chesterfield rolled out three teams to Matlock’s two, the third team being kept busy as the other two played, the coaches dedication is really starting to pay back in spades. Calling of names as passing is now becoming second nature. The teams were finding the widths of the pitches a bit of a challenge, which was noticed by a couple of coaches. Andy moved the cones to match the try line, to reduce confusion. Not Richard though as the try line moved a bit when he was refereeing, and much to this spectator’s enjoyment Garvin’s “FORWARD” is back.

It was good to see the newer members of the team being welcomed by the other players and watching Kris coming out of shell as his team mates called his name and passed the ball.

Thoughts of today!

Garvin: “Forward”. Ollie, Oliver C, and Robert were outstanding.

Andy: The play today was very good the squads were alert and talking as they passed the ball. On the restart the teams are organising themselves with little or no help from the side lines.

Richard: The scenery is beautiful and a couple of good fires. Richard again being enigmatic and not answering my questions “Ahhhhh”.

Dave: Team is coming together, Archie and Felix (when he’s not back chatting the ref) and Kris the new lad who has a good turn of speed.

As always, many thanks to Andy, Ben, Richard, Garvin, and Dave who put in many hours to make this possible. Things are looking good for the festival of rugby next week @ Ilkeston.

Thanks to Matlock for a great day of rugby and a great venue and the bacon sandwiches went down a treat, and lined Andy’s stomach for Sunday night.

Now I find out not only do people read these match reports that they look forward to them. A very nervous “Roving Reporter”.
Yours Cookie (Roving Match Reporter, U8s) + proof-reading By Rachel