Captain Joe won the toss and elected to play into the wind.Two very evenly matched teams played out an excellent first half with Redcar's forwards providing a string of possession through Jonny Dixon in the line out and dominated the loose play led by Luke Gaffney.The whole pack played extremely well and Consett were starved of possession. Mike Hammond at fly half released the backs and despite some excellent handling in the windy conditions neither Andy Benboe or Luke Sean Jenkinson were able to make it to the line due to strong defence from Consett.

As the half progressed Consett were able to release their backs and utilsing the wind to their advantage scored on the stroke of half time to take a 5-nil lead into the interval.

Turning round into the wind Redcar seemed to feel thay had the game in the bag but played with an unacustomed indiscipline in the first 10 minutes and let Consett back into the game. Redcar were caught napping from a penalty in their 22 when the Consett no 8 crossed untouched for a try in the corner.

Consett scored again before Redcar roared back into the game with the try of the match. A break by Andy B saw him tackled under the posts but was able to feed Sean Jenkinson who broke the line for a fine try.

Redcar continued to dominate but could not break down the defence with the final score Redcar 5 Consett 15.

Man of the match was Mike Bloom for a tremendous defensive effort at Full back closely followed by Josh Dixon who supported him throughout the game

Whilst it was dissapointing to lose a game we probably should have won it should be remembered that this side beat us by over 60 points early last season and won 37-17 in the final game last term. Progress is being made and the wins will come.

Mick