It only seems like yesterday when on a red hot day in Bradford, I pulled on the famous Hoyland Vikings shirt and prepared for battle.
It was sometime in the summer of 2005 when the Hoyland Vikings amatuer rugby league team headed off to Bradford to play Undercliffe in a pre-season friendly. If ever you've played amatuer rugby league you'll know there is no such thing as a 'friendly'. It's rough, it's tough, it's rugby league as they say...and we loved it!
It was the hottest day of 2005, or at least it felt like it, and we were about to play the meanest sport since the time of the Gladiators. We weren't up against Maximus Decimus Meridius on that day though, just 13 big hairy blokes from Bradford. This wasn't going to be an easy 80 minutes, but we stayed focussed. To be honest the majority of the lads were focussed on the night out in Barnsley that we invariably had after a game, but Phil 'The General' Hough, our captain, was having none of it, 100% focus on the game and nothing less.
It wasn't a memorable game, I can't even remember if we won or lost. I do recall Bri Robinson's shoulder popped out of its joint midway through the game though. "You going to the hospital Bri?", No chance, he just banged it against the nearest sturdy fence post and back in it went. You don't see that in the Premier League.
There's no moral to this story, and there's no big finish to it either. I just wanted to share a memory or two from many years ago. As life's clock ticks on, it's nice to look back to happy times, and the summer of 2005 with my Hoyland Vikings teammates, were some of the happiest times of all. Where did the last 17 years go!
Gaz
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