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Wharfedale 15 – Blaydon 12

Conceding penalties at crucial times contributed much to Blaydon’s downfall, none more so than in the 72nd minute when they were leading 5-12. At which point Andrew Baggett was yellow-carded for interfering with the ball on the ground, Wharfedale’s Tom Davidson landed the penalty and the home side went on to grab a narrow victory they just about deserved.

Former Blaydon fly-half Jamie Guy on his debut for Wharfedale opened the scoring in the 14th minute when he charged down a clearance and gathered in for a simple touchdown.

The lead was soon wiped out however by Robbie Kalbraier the Blaydon prop who rumbled over from a line-out drive and at the break it was all level at 5-5.

In their best spell in the early minutes of the second period Blaydon piled on the pressure and after a number of attacks had been repelled scrum-half James Christie dotted over for a fine opportunist score and Baggett added the conversion.

That was the end of Blaydon’s opportunities as Wharfedale gradually regained control leading up to the sin-binning and Davidson’s penalty. With time running out Blaydon had worked their way into a promising position only to concede a penalty for wrong numbers in a line-out.

Wharfedale kicked long downfield and from the next line-out flank-forward Joshua Burridge crashed over for the winning score and Davidson once more was on target.

John Brennan

Gateshead IIIs 45 – Blaydon Bricks 13 – where have all the Bricks gone……..

Thanks to the lads from Winlaton and Gateshead, 6 of them needed to be able to get a side out this week, thanks for the great commitment and Davy if you get barred for scoring against Gateshead, you’re always welcome at Blaydon….. :-)

Scorers:

Trys: Keith & Davy Cole.

Penalty – Phil

I have to say, you would think the Bricks had forgot when the rugby season was, over the last 3 to 4 weeks we have not been able to field a side, yet 5 weeks ago we have 6 subs. This week we had every excuse under the sun, it just getting too hard and for all sorts of reasons there is just not the same commitment to the team we have had in previous years. Don’t get me wrong, coming up to Xmas people need to take an extra work they can and we always struggle a little. I remember going to STC with 14 same time last year, but recently we have 5 or 6 players short.

Our Development were struggling as well, so we left Stu Bailey with them so they had 13 as they were playing Bishop IIs who we played a few weeks ago, good news they won.

Be interesting to see if we have a problem getting 15 for the cup game on the 15th – Anyway enough of all that there was a great game played on the day, lets concentrate on that.

Highs and lows of the game:

· Thanks go to Mickey and George from Winlaton for playing in this game, you gave 100%
· Also thanks to Davy, Riche, Mick and Lee – again you could not tell you weren’t from Blaydon, 100% given
· Keith was back from knee surgury, knock ons, not straights, penalties for tackling too hard, the lot was back, we now need Paul back from his broken finger (-nail) we’ve missed the Winter brothers.
· It was going to be a busy day for the backs, with a very youthful pacey back division out for Gateshead, Chester did a great job of getting in their faces and Gateshead waste loads of ball with bad handling. He even intercepted one, but you guessed it, dropped it…
· At the back Mick showed the young guns what happens when you haven’t learnt how to execute a 2 on 1 correctly, criminal, they should be made to do an extra training session dedicate to not making a fool of yourself.
· Cameron playing only his second game for us made so good tackles and snuffed out a number of Gateshead moves
· Anth played for us in the centre, first time he’d played in that position and put 100% into it, getting dropped on his head (no damage there) tackled all sorts and made some good breaks
· At fullback Mick always looked dangerous when he got the ball and made good yards
· Phil’s penalty hits the bar, centre decides to run it and got absolutely chopped in half by Keith following up, what he lacked in speed he made up for in leg drive as he hit him.
· Good to see Finnas and Knoxy on the hoof making good breaks and running through people, they put themselves about all game and made some good tackles as well.
· Davy your try, was a great forward movement, we never gave up, had support in numbers and a determination to get to the line, well done.
· Ian Bennie and Paul Dingley played blinders, all over the park and making some key tackles
· Windy looked as grey as anything, but we had no subs and stayed commitment to the end.
· Phil’s kicking from hand had Gateshead back 3 turning around on many occasions
· Knoxy’s kick has to get a mention, from left hand side near our line, into midfield on the 22 and landing in a quick centres hands, the team stopped him for Knoxy. Knoxy afterwards said we was tired (only his second game, we’ll give him that) and then try to defend it
· Mickey (Wharton) that tap penalty has to get a mention, thankfully behind the refs back, what were you thinking, I think the tired leg need to tap the ball just would not
· Great to hear Gateshead have started their 4th team fixtures, the Winters are looking forward to meeting Graeme Kell on the pitch again.

Team:

1. Scott

2. Ian Bennie

3. Davy Cole – Gateshead

4. Keith Winter

5. Adam Knox

6. George Hendry -Winlaton

7. Riche Varle – Gateshead

8. Windy

9. Mickey Wharton – Winlaton

10. Phil Rayson

11. Cameron (Lee Bunton – Gateshead)

12. Anthony

13. Chester

14 Paul Dingley.

15. Mick Eckstein – Gateshead

Fylde 42 – Blaydon 24

Blaydon were well in contention for 60 minutes and when the home side went a man down the game was there for the taking. Inexplicably they then went off the boil, being frequently turned over in the loose and spilling possession, and allowing the home side to run in 3 late tries.

Fylde won the try scoring contest by 6 to 3 and more significantly their fly-half Colin Johnson had a 100% conversion record in difficult windy conditions whilst the visitors had a nil return from their efforts. Blaydon fly-half Craig Willis was however responsible for 19 of his sides points with 2 tries and 3 penalties.

An early Willis penalty was soon cancelled out by Fylde open-side flanker Rob Stewart who touched down when Blaydon lost possession but the visitors hit back in style with 2 quick tries.
Willis crossed in the corner after good progress by the forwards from a line-out and 3 minutes later dummied his way through for a repeat effort to make it 7-13.

Right on the interval a fortuitous bounce gifted a score to Fylde No8 David Fairborough to give then a single point lead at the break which was extended soon after the restart when centre Chris Briers skipped clear down the blindside.

A brace of penalties from Willis brought it back to 21-19 at which point Dan Vernon the Fylde flanker was red-carded for a tip tackle and Blaydon were back in the driving seat.

Sadly it all went wrong as concentration dipped and the Lancashire side took full advantage to run in further scores through Warren Stagg, Johnson and Oli Bernard, all of course converted.
A late consolation was achieved when Gavin Jones went over from a catch and drive but the damage had been done in a disastrous 20 minutes.

John Brennan

Blaydon 32, Old Albanians 19

Blaydon got back to winning ways with what in the end was a comfortable victory but the visitors, who generally could find no way through a resolute defence, had a happy knack of closing the gap.

Old Albanians had an abundance of possession in the early stages but their attacks were repeatedly snuffed out by some brilliant tackling and it was Blaydon who opened the scoring on 25 minutes.

A sniping break by James Christie took them into the 22 and from a line-out Chris Wearmouth was driven over. The lock-forward was at it again to apply the finishing touch after Tom Jeffery with a devastating run and then Christie with another dart had taken it to the line.

At 12-0 it was so far so good but right on the interval and against the run of play Albanians winger Mike Allan was put clear to score in the corner. Then within 90 seconds of the restart the visitors kicked a penalty to the corner and when the line-out was palmed down scrum-half Jack Daly nipped in near the posts.

The scores were level but Blaydon quickly regained the ascendancy from another catch and drive, to which the visitors never found the answer, when young Matthew Jenkinson in his debut game got the touch-down.

An Andrew Baggett penalty stretched the lead and when the visitors were pushed off their own scrum ball in the 22 the fly-half was over in a flash for the bonus point try.
That should have been that but back came Old Albanians with 8 minutes remaining to again get within range at 25-19 with a Nick Stevens try.

A potential upset was now a possibility but Blaydon finally finished them off when Nathan Bailey joined the line to crash over in the dying seconds.

John Brennan

Durham County Cup draw – First Round – Saturday 15th November

The draw for the first round of the Durham County Cup on the 15th November is:

Also on Durham County Cup Website below.

Blaydon IIs bye through first round

Blaydon Development v Durham City (home)

Southtyneside Colledge V Blaydon Bricks (away)

Durham County Cup website

Northern IIIs 33, Bricks 3 – where were the Bricks…..

Our thanks go to:

U18s Joey & Nathan who both played great games and gave full commitment

To Winlaton Saxons, who came across to help us when their game got canned, thanks Steve, Rodders, Ayi, George, Tom, Dave, Ash, Matty & Liam

Ryan & Steven from the Development

Steven & Peter from Northern

Thacks kicked the penalty and we scored first …..

Where were the Bricks: paper cuts, snotty noses, wife’s nagging, washing the cat, every excuse under the sun came out this week, so we had 6 subs last week and we set off to Northern with only 13 players, but determine to fullfil the fixture with whatever side we had available, as the Bricks will always try to do.

Things didn’t look good when 6 Uni youngens showed up and reeled off they rugby pedigree and said they were looking for a game, unfortunately, they had walked up to the Northern IIIs coach, before we got hold of them and to be fair catching them in the changing room was the best chance we had……

Our thanks to Northern for giving us 2 players to make it 15 aside

The hi and lows:

Matty Bell entertained us in the changing room, he asked to play flanker so he could be videoed for an American Football trial, we played him prop in uncontested scrums…

Windy was left at club playing with sand, so we needed a captain and a pack leader. I gave Coatsey Captaincy and asked Strachs to lead the pack.

Horse snorted through his nostrells at me and with my usual man management approach I showed genuine concern by holding out outstretched palms. Which as Paul Winter pointed out afterwards actually means, who made the Bricks Team managment a democracy…
Strachs asked if Horse wanted to lead the forwards, Horse responded with a strong suggestion, that I had made my decision and i should ****ing stand by it, when do i not…..
So having made that comment a good part of the remainder of this match report is dedicated to Horse ……

Warm up, was a time to introduce players to each other and the highlights of the warm up was Horse doing the line out calls, bunch of numbers and ‘egg’, which confused everyone, as our line out call always do, but it seems this one wasn’t valid. At the start we only had one line out jumper, he could have just shouted front.

Coatsey started to pre game talk and called for passion and commitment, Horse took over and pointed out he always like to beat Northern as in his words they are a bunch of posh people, he then remembered two of them were on our team. This was followed by his rallying cry at halftime, when we had the Winlaton lads with us of ‘There are no closer teams than Winlaton and blaydon, well by geography anyway, we don’t like each other, but we have a common foe today, the posh people’

The fresh legs from Winlaton were a great help in the second half chasing the whippets.

Ryan did take a lot of good line out at the front

It has to be noted Phil Rayson made a tackle and its was on the opposition, not the ref.

To give him one positive statement, Horse was like a man possessed, he had a great game and was all over the park and tackling everything, that’s his one good comment, which will no
where near balance the rest.

He was also lying on the wrong side, not rolling away, tackling a touch high at time and his 10 mins rest was well overdue, by the time he went in the bin at 63 mins and abandon his team mates

Nathan’s lines of running broke the line many times and gave Northern problems all game

Joey tackled everything all day and when a Chris Oti clone came on things looked ominous, but Joey stuck to him like glue and pulled him down every time

Thacks had to leave the pitch after dislocating his thumb

We had a new player Cameron join us, on the day he had an Olympic sprinter on the wing against him, but he enjoyed the run out and will get a lot easier games than this one

Coatsey tackled his heart out and tried to barge through all the Northern team and broke himself, you just wish he’d offload to the bigger lads. Looked a bad knee injury, hopefully he’ll return for the cup match

Horse took on the kicking for touch duties, only once, golfers pay good money to get rid of slices like that

Damiens attempted fly hack has to get a mention, blind panic in defence, rather than drop on the ball, he kicks fresh air and Northern get the ball. He did redeem himself a little as him and Joey held Northern up over the line and saved a try.

Phil moved to flyhalf from fullback and it must have been a little too close to the action, the ball came out, I can only assume very hot as he immediately threw the ball in someone else’s direction. ‘Its a ball, Phil’ could be heard from the sideline…..

Rodders took some good ball at fullback and made some really good yards

Bricks (and guests) beaten convincingly, but never gave up and given the strength of the opposition, a credit to the Blaydon badge (Winlaton lads were a credit and looked good in red anyway)

Next week we return to league game again with Gateshead IIIs away, let’s see what side shows up this time…… Get a grip Bricks, cup match in a few weeks and Horse has been available for more games than most of you….

1. Peter – Northern (Ash – Winlaton)
2. Steven – Northern (Tom – Winlaton)
3. Paul
4. Horse ( Liam – Winlaton)
5. Matty (George – Winlaton)
6. Steven
7. Ryan
8. Strachs (Horse)
9. Joey
10 Coatsey (Phil Rayson)
11 Damien
12 Thacks (Dave Walton – Winlaton)
13 Nathan
14 Cameron (Ayi – Winlaton)
15 Phil Rayson (Rodders – Winlaton (well Blaydon really))

Loughborough Students 36 – Blaydon 8

Recent encounters between these two have usually ended in favour of the students, last season in particular when they won both games, and yesterdays meeting brought no respite for the Crow Trees side.

It started ominously when prop-forward Andrew Foster suffered a knee injury in the warm-up and had to be withdrawn but within a minute of the start Blaydon were in front. A penalty was kicked to the corner and in typical style they drove on from the lineout for Andrew Archibald to touch down near the flag.

But that was as good as it got for the visitors with them making very little progress in the next 79 minutes. The Students outgunned them in most positions, their forwards easily withstood any pressure from the Blaydon pack, and they had by far the slicker set of backs.

In no time two Blaydon clearances were charged down resulting in simple tries for Loughborough full-back Jack Pons and winger Will Edwards, and then Pons was in again having taken advantage of some poor tackling with Josh Sharp adding the conversion.

By the interval Blaydon fly-half Rhodri Adamson had reduced the deficit to 17-8 with a penalty but there was little sign of a revival.

Occasional forays up-field came to nothing and resistance was poor when the Students applied pressure. Josh McNulty, a replacement prop, Sam Poincon, and then Edwards for his second added 3 more tries and Sharp and Edwards a conversion apiece.

With 3 minutes remaining the game was ended prematurely due to a serious injury to one of the Loughborough backs, with no complaint from a well beaten Blaydon side.

John Brennan

2nd League win for the Bricks – Blaydon Bricks 36, Berwick IIs 24

Thanks to Phil Rayson for playing for the opposition

Sorry no photos, camera away for repair

Scorers:
Trys: Ian Bennie, Matt, Chester, Adam, Lowsey & Brett
Conv. Lowsey 1, Gerry 2

Warm beautiful day for rugby spectators and we had a good few, not so good for the our players though, especially those making comebacks and lacking a touch of fitness.

Highs and Lows:
· Strength of the squad increases with 6 people playing a first game of the season
· Lowsey, great break from the 22, pulled down just short and Matt was on hand to take the ball over the line
· Matts long clearance from the 22 hits Keith beer on the half way, at least he didn’t break his finger trying to catch it, good news, most of his pint was saved.
· Joe first game, playing flyhalf, dummy switch with Chester, hits Lowsey out wide who was just brought down short
· Next play Joe short ball to Chester on a great line and ran in 35 yards (still think it was forward) under the posts
· Joe came off after 20mins, as couldn’t breath and tired…. Big tart.
· Lowsey throws a bad pass and Craig pulls his groin trying to bring it in
· Matt made a good break towards the halfway, but a little lad from Berwick stripped the ball off him and set off in the opposite direction, matt, he’s behind you….
· Damien made a good try saving interception in the 22
· Good half, game played at pace and Bricks were starting to struggle, the training is illegal and dangerous policy, taking it’s toll.
· 2nd half started similar to first Bricks in the ascendancy, Berwick penalised, Liam takes a quick penalty and Gerry, well lets put it down to first game for a long time, juggled and lost the ball forward.
· Joe recovering after what I assume was a nap came back on for Matt, who’s knee went, ran it back from fullback and chipped the ball to the corner to put Lowsey in for a score.
· Cliff goes down on the floor and whipped out Ant
· Ryan break out of 22, takes contact and throws the ball way forward
· Chester on a break, drops the ball and all h*ll let’s loose and ends up with Lowsey leaving the field after retaliation for taking a short arm across his face

Summary: Some great rugby played by the Bricks on a day all 4 senior sides were playing, showing the strength in depth at Blaydon at the moment, we had 6 subs and needed them all. What should have been a more comfortable win was squandered and we let Berwick back into the game, as we took our mind off playing the game and got a bit caught up in off the ball issues. You can not fault the commitment and emotion from these guys playing for the Blaydon badge, but they do need to learn to stick with the game plan and not let the opposition get uder their skin. In the end the result was a fair reflection, we were the better side.

Next week our league games continue with an away fixture against Northern Panthers

1. Scott
2. Richard Pyke (Ian Bennie)
3. Ryan (Ian Kelly)
4. Cliff (Brett)
5. Adam Knox
6. Ian Bennie
7. Phil Divers
8. Windy
9. Liam.
10. Joe Snowdon (Gerry)
11. Damien. (Anthony)
12. Davy Lowes
13. Chester
14. Craig Barlow (Paul Dingley)
15. Matt Goodall

Blaydon 29 – Rosslyn Park 38 – Blaydon secure 4 Try Bonus point

Shaun English with his second try of the game in the final minute secured a valuable try scoring bonus point for Blaydon but the Crow Trees side could and should have done much better.
Too often their line-out throwing was wayward and handling errors abounded, gifting the visitors the bulk of their 5 tries.

On the credit side however they were at times more than a match for their high-flying opponents and in a purple patch near the end of the first half ran in 3 tries in 7 minutes.

Blaydon started slowly and were made to pay in the 8th minute when Park No8 Hugo Ellis stormed over. Craig Willis responded with a penalty as did Scott Sneddon for the visitors who then added a second score through ex-Tynedale flanker Sam Shires.

At !7-3 down drastic action was needed and Willis came to the rescue with a delightful dummy in the 22 to touch down under the posts, adding the conversion himself.

The good work was immediately undone when they failed to gather in the restart and Joseph Ajuwa scooted in for the visitors. Scarcely had the dust settled than Blaydon were in again, English over from a driving maul, and this time they did secure the restart for Tom Bramwell to sprint down the left and Toby Bain crossed in the corner.

At 22-24 it was all to play for in the second period but having got themselves into a good position with a line-out drive from a rolling maul again lost possession and Park hacked on up-field for Ellis to be driven over for his second.

In the 2nd minute of time added on Awuja sealed victory for the visitors, man-of-the-match Sneddon landing a 5th conversion, but there was still time for English to grab the bonus point.

John Brennan

West Hartlepool 15 vs 46 Blaydon Development

It’s a little difficult to write a match report when you have been playing a full 80…but I’ll give it my best shot!

A strong development team traveled to Wests looking to continue their early season form. It was disappointing to arrive and find that Wests didn’t have a full front row so there would uncontested scrums from the start of the game, if anything this gave Blaydon more incentive!

From the outset it was clear to see that Wests had one game plan, give it to the forwards and try to crash everything through the middle. What they hadn’t anticipated was the strength, resilience and speed of the Blaydon defence. From the first tackle to the last there were numbers in defence, great communication and real defensive effort to force the opposition to go wide in the hope of breaking through – which was the only way they scored their tries!

Without scrums to work from as starters it was important the pack used the lineout effectively to give the backs a platform to play off. Johnny Shaw, Liam Wright and Matty Whitfield were excellent at lineout time either securing our own ball or stealing opposition ball. In true Blaydon style the pack showed how effective the catch and drive can be, scoring directly from one and giving the backs a platform to score another two from. It’s credit to the forwards for getting themselves to training. It would be unfair to talk about lineouts without mentioning hooker Sandy Davidson who made his first Blaydon start last week having returned to rugby following a long period out with a nasty injury. He hit 100% of his lineouts and was outstanding in the loose.

With the forwards providing clean ball the backs showed what playing together and having a bit of confidence and understanding can do. They looked like they were going to score every time they had the ball in hands. Jack Emerson in the first half and Duncan Tompkins in the second showed their leadership and skill at 10. Frazer Wright ran some excellent lines in the centres, while Scott Whitfield and James Murray had pace in abundance which cause the Wests covering defence problems every time the ball went wide.

There is a really good feeling about the development team this season. Players are at training regularly, there is a real team spirit and ethos developing and with the U18’s becoming available again next week there is  competition for places in all areas, which is a great selection headache to have!

1. Andrew Strachan (C), 2. Sandy Davidson, 3. Joe Melia, 4. Johnny Shaw, 5. Ryan Convery, 6. Matty Whitfield, 7, Liam Wright, 8. Mike Hastie, 9. Chris Hamilton, 10. Jack Emerson, 11. Scott Whitfield, 12, Duncan Tompkins, 13, Frazer Wright, 14, James Murray, 15 Chris Coates

Tries (Sorry if I have forgotten anyone!) Scott Whitfield (2), Johnny Shaw, Ryan Convery, James Murray, Duncan Tompkins, Jack Emerson, Frazer Wright

Conversions – Jack Emerson 1, James Murray 2

Sin Bin – James Murray (Although in the post match discussion Coatesy reckoned he was onside everytime, but was took rapid for the referee!)