MOTM Clergy set the tone of the game with a crunching tackle from kick off, the first of many in the following 79 minutes. Bishop Auckland received a penalty shortly after and clearly backed their pack, opting for a scrum. Our pack had different ideas, pushing them backwards, receiving a scrum penalty. We opted for the lineout which was taken excellently by young Charlie Kay and started a drive until surprisingly a rough looking (more than normal) Jimmy Tyo broke away only to pass the ball to one of their players 5 metres out, allowing BA to clear their line. They worked their way up the pitch and received a penalty inside our half and opted to kick for touch. Thankfully their kicker had his boots on the wrong feet today and kicked the ball straight over the dead ball line..22 dropout was the result. Stu Waites took a quick one to himself, looking to speed the game up, he popped to the oncoming captain Toddy who fluffed the offload. BA picked up the ball and a pass later they were over the line to the left of the posts, con missed.

0-5

Our first try of the afternoon came 5 minutes after starting with some excellent back play to Dom Cox on the right wing. Just as he was about to be tackled, he got an excellent kick away which was chased by the returning Heckles. He picked and popped to Charlie and onto Barker, his sensitive feet must have fully healed as he pirouetted around the full back to score - it would have been a Ten from Len. Good conversion by Sal.

7-5 after 15 mins.

Cheese knees was at it again a few minutes later with a great pick from the base of a ruck, making good ground before offloading to the supporting Hadwen. New father Alex Johnson made further metres and passed to his pal Tyo, sadly his head was writing cheques his body couldn't cash and his chicken wing pass went to ground 10 metres out. Once again BA cleared their lines as we continued to force the game a little too much.
On 22 minutes we got our next try, another great take by Charlie to set up a maul to make a few meteres until we launched the backs. Waitesy took the ball at pace and a great line by Heckles on the switch saw him go under the over the line to the right of clubhouse end posts, con from Sal was short.

12-5

BA had a good spell next with some strong carrying by their forwards and put us under some real pressure resulting in the penalties in the next 10 minutes, opting for a scrum on the third after 2 failed lineouts. Despite being pushed back the scrum half got the ball away well to set the backs away, their winger stepping of his left and headed over the whitewash for a good score.

12-10 as con missed

We won a scrum penalty and a turnover scrum towards the end of the half, with Coates, Johnson and Angus doing a proper number on the opposite numbers however our handling let us down again, unable to caplitise on the dominance. With a couple of minutes of the half remaining, our resident Chilli enthusiast Dom Cox was away again down the right flank and would make the line only for their touch judge to contentiously raise his flag for foot in touch. We would fall foul to this again in the second half.

HT

The coaches made changes at for the second half, with Butch, Jordan Painter, Jacob Parker and the impressive Sam Knight. Butch and Painter didn't take long to make an impact, the former making a great break from inside our half, three phases later Painter who shook a few tackles off but his offload resulted in a knock on. The first 10 of the second half was pretty even and the coach's hoped that the introduction of Liston and Boom Boom Baggs would inject some oomph. One would go on to complete the game putting in some excellent work in defence...one wouldn't.
A lineout from yet another scrum penalty set our backs away again, fresh from his try scoring debut for the 1sts last week, the latest from the Painter production line slowly blasted up the right touchline with some great footwork. He offloaded to the supporting Heckles but the pass to Cox wasn't up to scratch and we knocked on, preventing what would have been a great try. Just under the hour mark we were penalised for not rolling away and a further 10 for chat to the ref (great beard btw). BA stand-off thankfully continued to fluff his lines and missed his touch finder allowing us to clear. BA' s strong runners will have been sick of the sight of Clergy already but this was confirmed on the 63rd minute after he smashed a player in the tackle, got to his feet to force a turnover penalty just inside the BA half. Strangely, we opted to have a shot at goal which we missed by some way.

After a few more minutes of not much happening for both sides, we were awarded another scrum penalty and took a quick tap and go. From the resulting ruck, Boom Boom Baggs saw something he wasn't pleased about happen to one of his team mates. He unleashed his alter ego, The Mysterious Cat and decided to take the law into his own very light and soft hands. Thankfully the BA culprit, was unscathed, the only thing landed on his face was a smile as he himself retaliated with an equally unimpressive attempt. Both were yellow carded but we wouldn't see Baggsy again as his 5 minutes on the pitch had taken its toll.

BA penalty 12-13

With Big Mike Hogan making a welcome return and Calum Treagar, Gez and Cam Mould entering the fray, we would continue our scrum dominance and close the game out.
The third try was scored by the man Heckles again who ghosted over close to the posts on 67 minutes following a good scrum, converted by Sal.

19-13

Our bonus point came a few minutes later with a fantastic individual try by Jordan Painter following a dominant hit by peperami arms Waitesy. Jordan broke through several tackles and weaved his way half the pitch go over, well celebrated on the terrace.

26-13 10 minutes to go.

The Benjamin Button of rugby Liam Larkin was on the pitch and made a great hit on the left just inside our half, from the knock on Butch set about matching the last try running half the pitch through several would be defenders to score an excellent individual try, converted by waitsy 33-13 and effectively game over. The animal that he is, Stu was penalised for a high tackle (you read that right) but the penalty touch kick was again shanked. Current academy player Sam Knight was having an excellent game and made a great break down the pitch, Spud was on the spot to support but decided to try his hand at passing. He had clearly been practicing in the week with Webby as the ball floated in the air towards  Hogan who understandably couldn't hold it. Larkin was set away down the wing for a certain score only for the touch judge to raise his flag yet again, Liam insists this was injustice of the highest order!!

 We closed the game as we started with some hard resolute tackling, firstly from Sam Knight as they threatened down our left and final play of the game Ross Wood and Clergy smashing their player into touch.

A great hard fought game against a very good side, showing our strength in depth, our patience and a huge improvement from the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Well done fellas. Pyman Cup up next.


MOTM: Connor McClurg Outstanding, tackled their ball carriers into submission
Ref: Solid 8.5
Dick of the day: The Mysterious Cat
Food: Hot beef and stuffing banjos, chips/roasties, gravy 9/10