The Hills Blog

The Hillhead/Jordanhill rugby season is far from over as the ladies continue to chase a league/cup double- a first for the Ladies team. They must win their final 2 league fixtures with bonus points to stand a chance at the league, and beat Watsonians on Sunday to progress to the Cup final vs either Wandies or Royal High.
The Hill-Jills ladies have had a great season showing massive improvement and strength of squad despite various absences at various key points in the season…some injured ladies have shown just a little teeny bit of fear that they may never make it back into the squad, I foresee a future in a sub-suit…
For the third week running Hills will face Watsonians on Sunday in the cup semi-finals, a difficult game by all accounts and a hard team to beat away from home with a number of their key players coming onto some end of season form.
So good luck ladies, if anyone fancies a wee jaunt to Edinburgh on Sunday the game is on at Dreghorn Barracks, kicking off at 2pm. The perfect recovery after the club dinner banter on Sunday…see you there

So, it seems an end of season run-down is in order. In all the excitement of general life and rugby newsteam failed miserably to report on the last 3 first XV games. Rest assured we were certainly present, living the rollercoaster of excitement, possibility and eventual heartbreak as the boys missed out on promotion in their final game against Dunfermline.
Having previously seen off Perthshire, 55-5, and played a stressful and highly entertaining fixture against league winners Kirkcaldy, winning 46-43 in the final moments, the possibility of promotion hung in the balance for the encounter with Dunfermline. Chosen one of the week number one, reflecting through the mists of time…was Stuart Ross. The No7 gets a pretty hard time in contention for the Chosen One award because he is consistently good, and newsteam expects nothing but the best from Fireman Stu. He was pretty nippy displaying a few overtaking manouevres to pass our regular winger, ahem…and was strong in the contact as ever, and showed how very versatile he is shifting out to the wing after the reshuffle due to injuries. He also showed the qualities that made him captain in Cammy’s absence, lifting the spirits of the younger players and keeping some shape and consistency in a very close game. Well done Stuart Ross
Next up Chosen One of the week number 2 goes to Hazzy at hooker who had a good game in the loose, and scrummaged well.
Given that it was such a long time ago, and that I get a bit confused in all the excitement I may have mixed those two games up…but Chosen One’s stand anyway. Well done boys.
Finally, last Chosen One for the boys this season goes to Ally J who had a good game against Dunfermline despite breaking his nose in the first minute and losing what looked like considerable (in the bleeding nose stakes) blood loss, almost the entirety of which was lost over the first-aider, lucky she was wearing waterproofs…after the drama of trying to stop the blood Ally went back on and played very well on the wing, working well with aggressive defence and showing a desire to win and belief in his teammates that kept the team afloat in the final minutes as some heads began to drop. He set up the final try, rousing the team for the final offensive. It was too late unfortunately and Dunfermline ran out winners, but well done Ally.
The boys, and massive home crowd, were understandably upset and disappointed but the boys should be commmended on a good solid season, Coachoftheyearchiefkeith and side-kick Grant have a great base to build on for a successful 2009/10 season.
Well done to everyone who’s been involved in the first XV this season.

The 2nd XV fared considerably better and wrapped up a league win and promotion a few games before the end of the season, still managing to close out games after being crowned league champions. The 2’s have some real talent on show and undoubtedly a few of Cahoon and Gareth’s boys will be involved in the first XV next year, there’ll be some hard decisions in the squads next season. I haven’t seen many of their games this season but they looked on form against GHA last week. Special mention to Lois Legendre for a great rate of turnover ball in the lineout, Donald Pitkethly for some brutal tackling and strong running, to Scott and Hadden for some rapid pace on the wings and to Ally W for some good strong running in the centre.
Well done to all the 2nd XV squad, to silver bullet Cahoon and to Gareth.

In case you’re not an active part of the Hughenden rumour mill- in which case you’re missing out- and haven’t heard the latest, first XV head coach Keith Robertson has been named Coach of the Year for our area. His talent and efforts have been recognised and he has now reached the dizzy heights of…G-list celebrity? Well, suitably far up the alphabet to gain some reognition and have at least a wee bit of diva potential, so keep a look out for our new local celeb around the club, and buy him a congratulations drink

Well done Keith, well deserved.
Rumour has it Heat and OK are in a bidding war for rights to cover Mr Robertson’s appearances at pre-season where he will mainly be wearing a variety of classic sporting outfits and working the sadist/schadenfreude look, which will give way to the traditional Keithangryface as we move into the autumn/winter season.
Newsteam thought it might be appropriate to address Coachoftheyearkeith by his proper title, but it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, so any ideas for a suitable moniker would be appreciated…King Keith, Mr Incredible, Sir, M’Lord, Chief…

Hillhead/Jordanhill U18 girls team played in a tournament on a barren wasteland in Grangemouth a wee while ago. It wasn’t exactly a barren wasteland…but it was quite far away from life, and was a bit too windy for my liking. However it is not, apparently, all about me, so I put on all my clothes and waddled out to watch, not before being transported in a tin-can mini-bus with 15 teenage girls, who apparently do squeal, just like on TV, and talk at just the right pitch to echo around the bus of fun. A…fabulous…assault on the senses. I think newsteam might be getting old…
Anyhoo, Coach Lindsey and the most organised person in the world(official TM) Jill, took to the road for the plate/bowl tournament and the girls put on a good show. A couple of girls had their first games and played very well, with the more experienced girls showing them how it was done. There were a few good players in the other two teams, with some weighty experience among them, hehe geddit…weighty? Yeah? No…ok. Maybe you had to be there.

Some special mentions…to Captain for the day for some good running and hard tackling, to the ever-entertaining Dionne for some great work around the breakdown, and good leg drive in her tackling, and some quality banter…to Carmen for her good positioning, strong running with the ball and good support play, to Zoe for her pressure and tackling- greatly improved, very impressed I was too , to Amy who played in her first ever game having been to one training session and played very well, putting in some thumping tackles, and even managing a wee bosh or two. Coach Lindsey taught her well…and to Victoria, who did some good work in the rucks and mauls, clearing the opposition and winning some good ball.
All considered, chosen one of the week went to Karen at scrum-half, ever-present, nippy around the break down, with some great tackling and running. Well done Karen.
Second prize now on offer, on special occassions, you really have to earn this one…is Chump of the week. In it’s second ever week of being up for grabs we already have a double winner, Little Smith (HJRFC Capt.) is again nominated. Let me set the scene…

Hills have scored, everyone returns to their own half in preparation for kick off. Little Smith is panting, cannot stand upright and making her way to the sidelines, in obvious respiratory distress, signalling to be substituted.

The poor First Aider on the sidelines begins to have a quiet internal panic attack.

Sudden respiratory distress, no obvious trauma, no significant history, young adult…I’m no Doctor, but if that happened on ER I’d be shouting “Pneumothorax! Pneumothorax!” at the TV…anyhoo, off she limps, bent over, panting, short of breath…
“I have to come off, I can’t breathe…”

Diagnosis anyone?

“My sports bra’s too tight…”

Chump. Of. The. Week.

So won one, lost one, the girls came second and a good day out was had by all. Well done girlies will keep all of y’all updated with their next outing.