Northern 86 - 7 TECH

TECH brought their troubled season to a close with a trip to free scoring , second placed Northern on Saturday. Once again despite having only the bare number of players available the side were intent on fulfilling the fixture, when others may well have cried off citing a shortage of front row players or some other excuse.

As has been the case throughout this campaign all of the fifteen players who turned out gave there all throughout drawing praise from the home spectators for their never say die attitude despite the regular scoring of the hosts. The game started with TECH taking play deep into the home half with their pack causing problems for their opposite numbers. Unfortunately despite contesting well up front throughout once the home side gained possession their big strong running backs consistently created havoc in the TECH defence. Time and again TECH pressure would suddenly be turned into desperate defence as the home side spread the ball wide  regularly breaking from deep in their own half to score. This pattern of play was to continue throughout the game with Northern reaching half time having scored 55 unanswered points.

TECH could have been forgiven for just lying down in the second period but to their credit they did not despite conceding a further 31 points, again mainly through the home sides backs. In fact the visitors spirits were eventually rewarded when they scored the final try of the game  some 8 minutes before the end of the game. Further good work from the pack took them deep into the home 22 and after recycling the ball a few times hooker Morgan Hamilton forced his way over for a try that had even the home supporters applauding. Jon Cole then added the extra points. Further determined defence then kept the home side from adding to their total before the game was brought to a halt.

Once again this was a typically gutsy performance by the beleaguered TECH side. Although all deserved praise for their efforts special mention should be given to skipper David Cheshire who laboured tirelessly throughout and Michael Parker who once again played with a broken toe. With the season now over the players and the club will look to pull together once more whilst also looking to attract new recruits for next years Durham/Northumberland Division 2 campaign.