It's great news for Garse, of course, but puts a bit more pressure on the squad where second rows for both the Firsts and Stags are not exactly ten a penny. Fortunately, Chocky will be back in the middle of November, after serving his ban for the hiatus at Westoe, and Phil Henderson looked the part in the warm up game at Blaydon.
In fact, Garse and Carl Miller would both claim they are really back rows playing out of position to help the side. The ladsin the first team and Stags squad who admit to being second rows include Anth Williams, Paul Rhodes and Steve Clayton, as well as Hendo and Chocky.
But its likley that Carl and Garse will be asked to do the job in the first few games as Hendo is off to Cuba on his hols for the first two weeks of the season. The dates were impsoed on him by his company!