Garry Holmes continues his blog from the front line
What Weather!
I can’t believe that we have had to miss a week either side of Christmas. This obviously means that we have gone 4 weeks without a match and no player enjoys missing that long during the season.
On the positive side, however, we have managed to get some good training sessions in during the Christmas period to build on to our good run of results leading up to the winter break.
Let’s think back to the Huddersfield game……….
They were yet to record a win over us, and by all accounts are still waiting. The Shining blue boots were in good form again and tries from Gary Hodgson, Mark Ireland and yours truly secured the win, but still no bonus point, a milestone that seems to be just out of our grasp at the moment. After the match debrief and the following weeks training as a squad, we are trying to change our mind set not to chase the bonus point.
Leading up to the Bradford game, training went well and things looked good for the match. Due to the hard frost of that week the match was called off.
The Christmas break was a brilliant chance to relax and for most players to get rid of knocks picked up over the 1st half of the season. For me I split my time between Kendal and Lytham seeing friends and family in both places.
With Fylde being the next team we were due to play, discussions with my brother Alan (Hooker at Fylde) often became interesting. The New Year was spent with Lucy’s sister and her boyfriend, and the New Year, we saw it in, in good fashion.
As we know, on the 2nd Jan the Fylde match was cancelled, giving us a chance to have a bit of a training session on the ice and snow. This was an interesting session, but a good blow out, and a well needed team work out after a long break from playing. At the end of the session a game of touch pursued, with snow balls flying, to put people off catching and when Gracie decided to take his shirt off, they were aimed at him! After being tackled 3 or 4 times he decided it was time to go in.
Preparations are now in flow for the next scheduled game away at Hull Ionians. The snow and ice will still make it hard to train, but refreshed. I know all the players are ready to get playing again and we should hit the snow running.
As some people will know, Will Voke and Ben Robinson have left the club to go travelling before returning to go to uni. I know everyone wishes them the best on their travels and to quote Will, “Live a dream, be a dream liver”
