So after shooting out of the blocks 7 days ago, this week it was the Golds turn to wake up late for their 10am Kick off at Halton Farnworth!

A depleted Golds missing Charlie, Lucas, Jimmy and James returned to Widnes for the 3rd time in 2 months to take on another of the Hornets U7’s teams. A scorcher of a morning meant team snapper Dave Wild turned up with a bag of fancy French mineral water on ice to show the Cheshire set we meant business. However, as the Golds were to learn, business hours start at the first whistle.

Golds were led out by birthday boy Kaiden but it was Halton who started with the ball and scored back to back tries whilst the Golds failed to score in their first set for a 2-0 lead. Set 2 for Golds was more productive as Logan bustled over to start the scoring – my extensive notes from match summariser Debbeann gushingly describe the try as ‘good’.

No let up from the Hornets as they scored again on set 3 and some seriously sleepy defending by Golds starting to cause concern as George had the best chance of set 3 only to be pushed out right at the corner flag. Halton, with their number 20 seemingly taking every other ball in, made the score 4-1 before in-form Oli did one of his trademark whippet runs to take us to the first break with some hope at 4-2 down.

A heart to heart by the boys in the break and a pledge for some better defence soon bore fruit in session 2 with a strong run from Alfie and a great offload from Jack paving the way for back to back tries for Jack B, with one from Halton inbetween. The big note of the 10 however was the Golds finally managing some sets of 6 without conceding, great tackling and chasing from human wrecking ball Logan holding a man up over the line, 100% effort in defence as always from George and strong runs from Jack W and Millie who got within a Funny Feet lolly stick of scoring her first try with a charge to the whitewash. Yet another try from Haltons number 20 matched by chief ducker-and-weaver Kaiden to take the Golds to 2/3rds time trailing 6-5. Game on!

Into the final 10 and now it was the Golds who had their sleeves rolled up, a fantastic chase back by Logan and George to save a certain try on Haltons first set with Jack B charging down the right wing for his hat-trick score to level the scores for the first time. Halton had other ideas however and once again the number 20 taking every other ball in for Halton used his size and pace to cross the whitewash. All hands to the pump now and an Adam offload found Oli to cover half the length as well as the width of the pitch 3 times in one run that was exhausting just to watch, Oli’s oversized headguard coming into its own as a sun visor in the increasingly hot conditions. Great field position for the Golds to finish the set and it was George showing sweet feet to cross for a well taken try celebrated with a 1 tooth grin. Scores level and 1 set left for each team. What were the Golds made of? The next 3 minutes showed us as 6 tremendous tackles on some fast and powerful Halton players led to a turnover deep in Golds territory. Strong running from Santi, Jack B and George put the Golds, level at 7-7, 20 yards out with 1 tackle left on the final set. Cometh the hour, cometh the missile as Logan steamed onto the ball, swept round three defenders and dived over in the right corner. The Golds infront 8-7, in the lead for the first time as the final whistle sounded to ear piercing shrieks from the traveling support!

So 3 trips to Widnes this season and 3 wins for the Golds, but none was so hard earned as this one, valuable lessons learned by the coaches and players about arriving for the match ready to play. Formula 1 style celebrations from the boys who knew they had dug to deep to reverse the early pattern of the game and a well deserved soaking with iced Evian water for chief shrieker Lindsay from the podium! 2 More games to go before the August break, lets keep this rich vein of form going Golds, hopefully right from the off next week.

Golds lined up as follows: Kaiden©, Jack G (MI), George, Logan (TT), Santi, Millie, Jack W, Adam, Alfie, Jack B (MOTM), Oli. Missing: Lucas, James L, Jimmy H, Charlie.