Blaydon 66 Hull Ionians 14

Rejuvenated in recent weeks, Blaydon were back to their best yesterday in crushing fellow strugglers Hull by 9 tries to 2, including a try bonus point within 26 minutes and a hat-trick of tries for hooker Matt Thompson.
It was not that the visitors played badly, their big forwards lacked nothing in effort but were tackled out of it time and time again, plus they had a propensity to infringe whenever under pressure and Blaydon were not slow to take advantage.
Apart from a 3 minute spell midway through the second half when out of the blue they ran in 2 tries Hull were never in the home 22, and scoring wise it was all one-way from the very first minute. In an absolute perfect start Blaydon kicked off, the visitors collected but failed to control the ball and were penalised, Andrew Baggett put the ball to the corner for Thompson to touch down from the driving maul, and it was 7-0 within the minute.
Following the next infringement they moved it cross field for a Chris Wearmouth try, and then Jason Smithson ran a clearance from half-way, Andrew Archibald attacked the line and when he was held up a short scrum resulted. Hull in full retreat pulled it down and a penalty try was awarded.
Thompson grabbed his second before Hull prop David Laverick was yellow carded for persistent infringing by his side and then 3 minutes later second-row Joseph Makin followed him to the bin for a ferocious head high tackle on James Cooney.
By the break it was 36-0, Thompson having completed his hat-trick and 3 minutes into the second period Kris Bratton had skinned his opposite number to send in Baggett for try number 6.
Hull then had their 3 minutes of glory, leading try scorer Sam Wilson crossing for 2 identical efforts, both converted by Greg Lound, but normal business was quickly restored.
Jack Davidson exchanged passes with Andrew Lawson in a swift raid down the left to add the next score, Andrew Foster went in from another rolling maul and Smithson from a short scrum to finish it off.
The rest of the points were provided by Baggett completing his splendid afternoon with 6 conversions and a brace of penalties, plus a Ryan Foreman drop-goal.

John Brennan.