Tales from the Members’ Bar

No.21 Ben Lewitt (Part II)

 
Back in January, when I first met Ben Lewitt, my research turned up all sorts of things to discuss with him. That piece was easily the longest of this series and ranged from iced party rings (I was never happy with that as an answer from a grown man no matter how big the inner child) to the lovely lady from the Scottish Widows’ advertisement; from playing for Lions, Tigers and the London Tribe to the never-to-be-forgotten-match with Orrell at Edge Hall Road.

This was in the days before the Saints Communications Manager started slipping in repeat performers. Google has not been so bountiful in providing new material for this week’s fire-side chat.

I had the snippet from Barfly that told me that should he be in Saturday’s squad, Ben will have made 50 appearances for the club. It will be the first time that he has achieved this in his career and is understandably pleased with the prospect. The other thing that we had to discuss was that in his last couple of appearances he and Foxy have played together with Ben in the No. 7 shirt. In case you had not noticed, they have actually been playing left and right in what Ben described as the old fashioned way. He thinks it has benefited the team because of the trust between them. It is good to know that you have a good tackler right up there with you, when you go flying into a tackle. The pair of them are good mates. Being taller, Ben gets most of the line-out duties leaving Foxy free to exert pressure in the midfield.

Like many of us, Ben was cursing his luck when he came a cropper in the Launceston match. Helped from the field with a quarter of an hour to go, Ben was diagnosed with a strain to his medial ligament. Four days hard work in the physiotherapy room and he was patched up, taped up and back on the field against Pertemps Bees. The knee received another thorough examination in the depths of the Plymouth mud the following weekend.

In case anyone was in any doubt, his all-action display against Chiefs last weekend proved that not only was his knee sound but that Ben is a back-row forward that combines the down and dirty parts of the game with the creative. Never slow to leach on to a tackled player to give him extra weigh and extra legs (good habits he reckoned he learned early in his career) Ben can also pop up in handling moves. He seems to have the instinct of when to pass, when to off-load; when to go to ground to provide quick ball for the supporting players. A look at the ITV Local highlights package will reveal all these attributes and more.

I asked him who he thought was the best player (in his position) that he had played against. There was absolutely no doubt in his mind – Richard Hill.

Having checked out the list of players with contracts up for renewal and found it contained four back-rowers including Ben, I asked him if the arrival of the two men from Ulster made him nervous. He says he had not really thought about it. His focus has been the job in hand. With the league won, there is the cup and the 100% record still available. Nobody is taking anything for granted, starting with Nottingham this weekend.

Really – you have not thought about it at all?

Well I suppose it is because they are not in my position?

What about the rumours concerning those that are?

Who are they?

They are both blond.

It turns out that everybody in the game has heard about Magnus Lund’s supposed proposed sabbatical but Ben was firm in his desire not to comment about anything else. Yes, he does want a new contract and to be here next year in the Premiership.

The biscuit? Well I suppose they were my favourites when I was a kid; it was a very eighties answer.

Now? Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Fingers

arw

28.3.2008

Post scriptum ~ A couple of months ago (the Johnny Howard Tale), I set a poser as to who might appear in the photograph on Johnny’s Mum’s pin-board.

The clues were that:

·         the player (DOB 19th Oct 1982) was aged about four when the photograph was taken;

·         Johnny (DOB 2nd Oct 1980) would not have been much older;

·         there was no connection with Aylesbury;

·         everything would become clear in the springtime;

·         I would tell you after the Exeter match.

The telling snippets from the Tales from the Members’ Bar are:

X comes from that part of south London just as it is giving way to Surrey

Johnny took up rugby a year after moving to Buckinghamshire from south London.

Given that the match against Exeter was indeed in the springtime and was, in fact, at Easter, all the information is now in front of you.

OSB

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