ROARING FORTIES DE MASTS VALE

BROUGHTON PARK  47   VALE OF LUNE  7
NORTH 2 WEST

Henry Blofeld would have loved it. The sun dappling the distant Pennines, red buses chugging their merry way along Princess Parkway, seagulls strutting their stuff on the deserted soccer pitches on Hough End playing fields, 'Where have all the players gone? Gone to the Trafford Centre every one!' For the season to be jolly was fast approaching, credit cards were champing at the bit to be released from the dark recesses of wallets and purses.

The view from Broughton Park's glittering state of the art new clubhouse was impressive, as was the building itself. Light and airy, chrome tables and chairs on highly polished wooden floors, recessed lighting, huge picture windows and patio doors ran the length of one side which overlooked the pitch. All very modern, but the past had not been forgotten or the fact that this is a rugby club with a proud and much travelled history around Manchester since their formation in 1882. At one end of the clubhouse an impressive collection of honours boards can be found, mounted on the walls are club shields, press cuttings of famous encounters and framed shirts of former players who gaines representative honours at international and county level.

Broughton Park moved from Chelsfield Grove to the wide open spaces of Houghend Crescent, but if the Vale of Lune thought that a new venue would bring a change in their fortunes against Park, over the seasons a victory at Chelsfield Grove was as rare as hen's teeth, then they were in for a shock.
Before the construction of the clubhouse and playing areas, the Vale had visited Park when they were using the facilities of the Manchester City Police social club, at the end of the 20002/03 season. Even though the Vale had clinched the championship of North Two West they were sent packing on thier way to North One with a 45-19 good hiding.

The Met. Office were forecasting deteriorating weather conditions with heavy rain and gale force winds on their way. Unfortunately for the Vale a force 8 on the Beaufort Scale arrived early on in the game, impeding any forward progress. For the opening eight minutes the Vale were battered relentlessly, unable to find any shelter from the storm that broke around their heads as Park rattled in nineteen points.
Hurricane John (Clifford) and Tornado Peter (McMahon) with three and two tries respectively, picked their way through the debris that littered the Vale defence. Park ran in a total of seven tries, six in the first half, and only missed one conversion.

There was little for the Vale to salvage, although they did match Park in the second half scoring stakes when Andy Garnett converted Malcolm Fowler's consolation try in the final minutes; as some wag pointed out, the second half was drawn!

Certainly the buffeting the Vale received affected their game, they hardly dropped anchor in Park's waters in the first half, while, despite having the wind at their backs in the second half, they were unable to breach a well organised defence. Few openings were created; lateral passages of rugby were easily dealt with as the Vale struggled to untangle themselves from the rigging, which came in the form of a forty point half time deficit.

Some players tried to pick their way through the chaos. James Knox battled hard to stem the flow. David Schuyler worked vigorously at close quarters, Dave Halliwell thundered through the waves; James Bryan dealt with some high hanging kicks in the first half and Alistair Richards injected some pace from the few opportunities that came his way. But overall it was a disappointing performance after a promising November, being holed below the waterline early on did not help their confidence making it a long wait before eventually limping into a safe harbour.

A subdued coach made its way back to Powder House Lane; no carols, no frigging in the rigging - there was not much else to do - no sage and onion, enough stuffing had been dished out by Broughton Park and no detour to Gargrave. Jacko organised a brief stop in Garstang to scrape the barnacles off and prepare the chipolatas for the visit of Aspatria on December 16th.

VALE OF LUNE: J.Bryan, A.Richards, M.Walker, A.Garnett, J.Curran, N.Bennetts (Capt), J.Bleasdale (Rep A.Bolsover 65), P.Jackson, D.Schuyler, A.Cowey (Rep M.Speight 50), D.Perry, D.Halliwell, D. Lin, J.Knox (Rep L.Ford 61), M.Fowler.