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A Friday night game seemed to be arranged so that we could either watch the 1s the next day or else go for a night on the tiles afterwards. In any case no one expected the match to take place not because of the forecasted storm but when we tried this three times last year each match was postponed for one reason or another.

So when Friday came most players had arranged a free pass out from home and few cars were brought to Deramore that evening. Playing on Friday night also seemed to have everyone in the club and changed long before the kick off. Was this sporting eagerness or simply that we no longer contend with Pedro and Raven’s punctuality?

The game kicked off with the 5s benefiting slightly from the elements and in determined mood quickly applied some pressure. It was looking good that we could get a result from this game but the Lisburn defence was as resolute as we have seen for some time. They were up very quickly (possibly even too quickly) and flat, and tackled with a vengeance, which left it difficult to break the gain line.

We had the measure of them in the pack though and Ian Thompson’s excellent scrummaging skills resulted in us gaining a few against the head, and him the Man of the Match Award. However, not long before half time our injury curse struck again. A sniper on the Castlereagh hills had a perfect shot and off went Nial Bryson with a leg injury. Down to 14 men yet again we rallied ourselves but it was quite an uneventful half. We came close to scoring a couple of times but only managed to score a penalty just before the break to leave the half time score a favourable 3-0.

The second half was a bit dour to start with and the new scrummaging rules are ridiculous. Only allowed to push 1 m, and not allowing a reduced pack to have someone playing at 8 left our scrum with a lot of difficulties. Andy Nixon returning at scrum half had a torrid time fielding ball at the base but it did bring about a snap drop goal effort when Roger turned on a six pence to fire a long distance shot. By the end of the night this amazing effort had developed and been embellished into the stuff of legends, and only missed because the posts were bent. Others argued that this stupid effort had Dick of the Day written all over it.

Quins did manage to extend their lead with a well taken try by the XMG Rocket, Paddy Moley, getting his third try in only his second game. Some excellent play from Barry and in particular Michael McShane (who is starting to really look the part after only 2 games ever as well) put Paddy clear to finish off in the corner.

With 20 minutes to go, the Lisburn tight head suffered a neck injury following a collapsed scrum and the game was halted for what seemed like an hour for an ambulance to arrive. During this time negotiations to halt the match with us being awarded the game were without fruit, and so the game resumed after this lengthy break with Lisburn clearly believing they were right back in the game.

Lisburn did indeed up their game and came close to scoring in the corner only stopped by a last ditch cover tackle. They also believed that they had scored on another occasion even though the ball was not on the pitch at the time. Strange. But they did manage to stretch our defence with some excellent rugby and scored close to the posts, although the conversion was missed. This would come back to haunt them as Lisburn now required a try to secure a win and they must have been ruing their decisions not to take points earlier in the game instead electing to try unsuccessfully for a score.

This did set up a fairly frantic last few minutes with our defence in absolute desperation to keep them out in the final play of the game. Amazingly this play went on for about 5 minutes as the play never broke down and the ball never left the field. Lisburn also received about 3 or 4 strange penalties during this time when everyone was fly hacking at the ball trying to get it to cross the touchline but no one seemed to connect properly with it. Paddy Miscampbell set the whole thing in motion when instead of picking up the ball and securing possession or kicking it out, he decided to volley it unsuccessfully to our full back, which set the whole calamity in motion, earning himself the Dick of the Day Award. So at the final whistle the 5s were somewhat relieved to have held them out and bagged the two league points.

Kind regards go to the Lisburn prop and hopefully he will have a swift recovering. Many thanks to those that came to support, our largest crowd yet (there may have been 5 Quins watching) including the two 4th XV reps who made good use of our gratitude by flogging us a load of raffle tickets for their tour.

A win is a win, and it was a good nights work. Its always nicer to go out on the town after getting a result for a “team bonding session”. So all in all it was probably a good night, I think.

Team: 1. Mark McCartney 2. Stephen Uprichard 3. Ian Thompson 4. Pete Stewart 5. Hugh Daly 6. Chick Chalmers (capt.) 7. Nial Bryson 8. Neal Elliott 9. Andy Nixon 10. Roger Gilpin 11. Paddy Miscampbell 12. Barry Dowling 13. Michael McShane 14. Paddy Moley 15. James McCaughran.

Man of the Mach: Ian Thompson

Dick of the Day: Paddy Miscampbell

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