Waimea Old Boys' multiple reasons to celebrate

Waimea Old Boys have continued their streak of strong performances with another big win.

The 33-19 victory over Stoke at Jubilee Park has seen them skyrocket from being overlooked to one of the competition’s front-running teams.

While in other results, Kahurangi dominated Moutere in a 43-17 home win and Central’s game with Nelson was postponed due to injuries and players away meant Nelson could not field a team.

Adding to the celebrations for Waimea Old Boys after a tough win in the battle of red was their co-captain Lee McBrydie bringing up his 100th game with the club.

Having started his premier career wanting to break the 50 game milestone, he says it was a goal to be a centurion but one he never imagined he’d make it to.

After eight seasons in the red and white hoops, he says he’s seen the highs and the lows of the club and is excited about where the team is at.

“We’re still building. Each week we keep improving.

“I think a lot of people counted us out again this year, but we’re firing.”

He says that the game was a strong performance but not perfect, as Stoke fought back to a respectable scoreline after being down 33-7 shortly into the start of the second half.

“We started slow, but once we got ball in hand, we started to get into them.

“There was a good chat at half time that we needed two quick tries, which we did.”

Asked if he had another 100 games in him, Lee laughed and said “I doubt I can run that past the missus”.

After Stoke opened the scoring through centre Caleb Coventry, the traffic reversed course as Waimea would add five unanswered tries in a dominant performance across the park.

While there were areas that Stoke had the upper-hand, notably at scrum time, Waimea Old Boys were able to avoid the areas where they found themselves behind.

The game, which doubled as a contest for the Ken Mansfield Trophy which is played for between the two clubs in the first round, was one of the most attended Waimea Old Boys games as the community turned up to support their home team.

With a number of Stoke fans mingled through the crowd, it was one of the biggest sideline presences in recent memory.

Next week, Waimea Old Boys will take the trip over the Whangamoas as they get set to face Moutere while Stoke’s forecast doesn’t get easier as they play host to Central at Greenmeadows, while Marist are back in action after a bye with a home game against Kahurangi.