 Flashback
/National Trials
Could he kick it - could
he hell!!!!
Ed tries to follow in Big Gavin Hastings footsteps
The
time was September 1996, the Claymores has put Scotland well and
truly on the European Gridiron map following their World Bowl triumph
over Frankfurt Galaxy 3 months before in front of 39,000 fans at
Murrayfield Stadium.
With
Rugby legend Gavin Hastings at the helm, they could not have asked
to have a cooler customer to boot them on their way to glory, when
he converted those three vital extra pressure points during the
opening win of the campaign against the London Monarchs.
Now
the search was on to se what gridiron desperadoes were brave or
daft enough to take up the gauntlet to take up the challenge again
for 1997.
So
caught up in the emotion of it all, it was in a rain swept Stepps
training field in Glasgow that I decided to join around 50 gridiron
wannabees at the Claymores annual National Trials.
None
of the pads and helmets stuff, I have a very low macho threshold.
I decided to take route one and try and follow in big Gav’s
footsteps. For many
it is the easiest was in to the sport – well that is the theory
any way.
Like
Gavin, I only had a matter of weeks to master a sport that was unfamiliar
to me, but if he could do it – so could I.
We
were both in our early thirties, he was a father, so was I, and
he was tall, dark and good looking.
Well two out of three aint bad – I’m not that tall.
How
ever I had one major problem to overcome.
I had not played any kind of sport in 15 years.
But
my body was still my temple, but with a wobbly dome. For years I
had tried and failed to regain visual contact with my feet.
Hard work lay ahead.
I
started with some jogging and was still in a determined frame of
mind despite the fact that I had been overtaken by a group of 10
year olds chasing an ice cream van.
My wife – a
former fitness instructor, who had previously made no impact on
my lifestyle, put me on a crash diet. Out went the fry ups, in came the salad – Oh Deep Joy.
 As
the training increased my weight was slowly coming down and three
weeks before the trials it was time to try and look like a kicker,
this was going to be the easy part – WRONG!!!!!!!!!!
My
only coaching manual was a tape of World Bowl 96 and first attempt
at kicking was memorable for the wrong reasons.
I
booted the kicking tee instead of the ball, ripped my trainers and
the momentum carried the ball ten yards, where a stray dog then
tried to relieve itself.
Who
says it is an easy life as a kicker.
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