Club’s own Billy Whiz is loving life at Priory Park
FOLLOWING his MOTM performance against Alnwick and his heroics at scrum-half against Billingham, it’s appropriate that Myles Hall is the subject of this week’s player profile.
Myles is as big a character in the dressing room, as he is out on the pitch, he’s a product of Bramhall High School where he started his rugby career in the centre but converted to wing, being left handed he does prefer to play left sided but recently also playing full back as Will Davies moved to 10 to cover for the then injured skipper Tom Morton.
He does enjoy the additional space at number 15, receiving the ball more, with the opportunities to develop it square instead of being hemmed into the touchline.
Earlier in his career he gained a Cheshire Cap at Under 20 level, and during his Manchester Rugby Club days was coached by both Sir Ian McGeechan and Jason Robinson, which could explain Hall’s own Billy Whiz style of elusive running from tight situations in defence. At Manchester he played 1st team rugby at age 18, when they were going through their really barren spell; and he had to learn how to operate without much team support from the others.
He speaks highly of our previous coaches: Giles Hegatty and Marshall
Gadd and he feels Andy Appleyard has the vision to lead us to promotion.
Outside rugby there’s a James Bond theme running through his life; he owns a white Persian pedigree cat called Bronson, a lookalike for Blofeld’s feline in the 007 movies.
He’s also rebuilt a Bond Bug 3 wheeler car which is 45 years old. Car mechanics come easy to Myles – after all he is Workshop Foreman for Cooksons, the Peugeot agents.
This is his fourth season with Macclesfield, he says: “I love life here at Macc, I enjoy the standard of rugby, and even the often long travels to away games; also the social life is a massive attraction”.
ACLASH between the league’s two heavy-hitters occurred at Priory Park on Saturday. Billingham had gone unchallenged in the previous 10 matches, winning all games and in the process accumulated 47 points.
Macclesfield on the other hand sat in third place, carrying an impressive five-game winning streak going into this fixture. An additional weapon in Macc’s arsenal came in the form of the home crowd. No team had won here this season and with a packed Priory Park, the atmosphere was electric, and the stage set.
Macc needed to start strong but it was Billingham who scored first with just two minutes gone. Matthew Kirby received a pass who stepped two players to go under the posts. With the conversion scored by Peter Evans it was a real shock to most spectators.
After a sustained period of play, mainly centred in the middle of the pitch, the visitors scored their second try of the day through Luke Wilson in the 17th minute. He had been fed a short pass which exploited a gap in the defence, combined with a hard line it resulted in a try under the posts leaving the score 14-0.
A reaction had been needed and it came in the form of the forwards and a dominant scrum. After Sam Broster was held up in goal, Macc used their scrum to earn a penalty try in the 28th minute. Prior to this, Macc had been awarded three scrum penalties in four minutes. Kieran Clark was given a yellow card for Billingham for the repeat infringements.
Despite trailing 14-7, Andy Appleyard’s side