Sunday saw the Carvell Coventry Bears continue their 2008 preparations with an empathic victory over the Northampton Gremlin Allstars in Mud Bowl II.
Some last minute changes to the line up saw veteran player coach Ty Watson move to the centres and Adam Fremantle on the bench.
The game started brightly with the Bears scoring with their very first set of six from the kick off. Two good drives from Aaron Jarvis and Tim Farnden saw Irish International Alan Robinson throw a great cut out ball to Ty Watson at speed who in turn turned it back to ex Leicester Tiger Matt Allsopp who scored inside two minutes.
Stand off Graham Healey duly converted.
From the restart ever green John Nicholls had a strong run which resulted in debut winger Ben Massivo scoring under the posts. Healey converted.
The first half continued in much the same way with further tries to Luke Montague, Ben Massivo and two for Ty Watson.
Halftime score 36 to nil to the Bears.
Tim Stevens rallied his Gremlins at the break and they came out intent on making up for a poor first half. Some strong forward play by the Gremlins saw them score first after the break. Northampton continued to impress with some ferocious defence which tested the young Bears lineup.
The Bears responded with some real spirit and they clawed their way back into the ascendancy with some punishing defence on their own and dazzling backline movement.
Watson and Massivo soon completed their hat tricks – Watson’s first for the club in four years.
Hooker Alex Brown strolled over with a fine individual try, followed minutes later by Matt Allsopp’s second.
The Gremlins finally managed to trouble the score sheet again late in the second half with a great try on the corner.
Graham Healey completed the rout and then converted his own try.
Referee Tim Fellows then blew for time with the score at 66-10 to Coventry.
After the game Bears Legend Kevin Hayes – who is emigrating to Australia – presented the Mud Bowl trophy to Bears skipper Alex Brown.
Brown was delighted with the win and told local press” this was great performance by the boys today and it especially pleasing to see many new face in the Bears line up”.
Head Coach Ty Watson was equally pleased with the teams display and reserved special praise for Aaron Jarvis and Phil Malloy. Watson also commented on the depth of talent this year with impressive debuts to Matt Fielder, Paul Wilkes, Ben Massivo and Adam Fremantle.
Man of the match honours were split between Aaron Jarvis and Ben Massivo.
Team: 1: Phil Malloy. 2: Tanaka. 23: Ty Watson. 4: Luke Montague. 5: Ben Massivo. 6: Graham Healy. 7: Johnny Tipton. 8: Alan Robinson. 9: Alex Brown © 10: John Nicholls. 11: Aaron Jarvis. 12: Tim Farnden. 13: Matt Allsopp.
Interchange: 14: Mark Challik. 15: Luke Jarvis. 16: Matt Fielder 17: Paul Wilkes. 18: Adam Fremantle. 19: Ryan Jenkins.
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