Saturday 18th March – Blaydon Bricks v Blyth IIs

Bricks let a 25 -5 halftime lead slip, which no doubt resulted from the amount of changes made at half time, with Bricks only just holding on to win 45 – 39, but in the end take maximum points by loaning Blyth 2s Keith Winter and Ian Bennie, which was nearly the undoing of us.
Good to see a couple of new players making they debut, Cameron who joined us after last playing for the school last year and Arron who last played for Blaydon U15s about 4 years ago. Good to have additional players as we still have many injuries; Savs, Matt Goodall, Harry, Windy (although he put in 20 mins today) Cliff, Phil Rayson, Stu Bailey (adding Horse and Steve Sewell this week) added to the fact that Toddy rejoins his ship on 22nd (how crap is his timing) and of course we have Lowsey on a sabbatical…… last tagged in a monastery in the Himalayas. At this rate we’ll be loaning players from the opposition for the final.

.
Sorry about the lack of photos, it was left to me to take them again, which always ends poorly, sorry but Finnas was AWOL, let’s hope he hasn’t left us to take photos at Winlaton…. https://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

.
Scorers:
Trys: Divers 4, Chester, Craig O, Arron P
Conv: Divers 5
Highs & Lows;

.

• Horse made two good breaks from the back of a maul, only to be cut down by a young winger on both occasions, coming off injured and now doubtful for the final.
• Keith didn’t let us down and knocked on at a line out as the ball came down to him, ref pinged Blyth for a knock on.
• Set pieces worked well both halves; Blyth Scrum went back every time and Cookie, Toddy and Steve S took good line out ball.
• Divers at flyhalf with so much good ball from the forwards looked dangerous every time and scored four trys’, jug at the final required….
• Keith bosches first Blyth player, but second one stripped the ball from him as he recovered from the hit.
• Hope picked up a low pass and made a good break through the middle from fullback.
• Good break from Steve Sewell after coming on for Horse, but his shoulder went again later in the game and another one who won’t make the final.
• Centres Chester and Damien switched to good effect with Divers and made good yards, great line from Chester for his try.
• It was a really warm day and players were struggling with the heat, Steve Palmer was like a red flashing beacon and everyone wanted to be subbed, Chester had complained last time he was substituted, so even though he wanted a break, he was left on for the full game
• Cookie and Toddy were all over the park making crunching tackles
• Cameron and Arron had good debuts, with Arron scoring a good try.
• Putting Keith and Ian on for Blyth wasn’t my greatest management decision of the season, as the mobility of their pack increased around the same time we seemed to have switched off, we were 40 point to 5 up at one stage. But we continue with the policy of Bricks not playing uneven numbers in a game and we’d do it again.
• Paul W caught a kick off, had to mention that, then shouted for the next and Keith O left it and it dropped to the floor with Paul nowhere near….. normality resumed!
• Blyth then realised they had the speed advantage out wide and started to take he ball wide at every opportunity starting to clock up the trys and if their kicker had a kicking tee (I did offer ours) we probably would have lost this game.
• Craig B had been for a run in the morning and rumour was had 3 pork pies before the game, believable as a young winger from Blyth out stripped everyone down the sideline. Craig, later in the bar claimed it was nothing to do with his run and he was not outstripped, as he was no where near, he was reminded he was fullback and last line of defence and should have got across. He did get him the next time he broken through, was his next defence…..
.
Next week we take on Morpeth Stags, away, who are immediately above us in 3rd place and beat us about 6 weeks ago, so you can assure it will be a tough encounter.
Also Houghton Boars play Winlaton Saxons next Saturday 1st April so we find out who play in the final on 2nd April.
.
Team:
1. Paul Winter
2. Keith Winter (Grumpy)
3. Brian Penny (Steve Palmer)
4. Horse (Steve Sewell)
5. Keith Oliver (Jack Inglis)
6. Ian Bennie (Arron Poad )
7. Cookie (Cameron Richardson)
8. Mark Todd (Windy)
9. Stu Reay (Hopey, Craig B)
10. Divers (Hopey)
11. Paul Dingley (Mickey Bell)
12. Steve Davidson.
13. Damien A (Mark Todd)
14. Craig Oliver (Damien Shaw)
15. Hopey (Craig Barlow, Damien A))