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Blaydon extend winning streak to 4

[match id=115]

In a first half littered with errors by both sides the game was going nowhere until Fylde centre Chris Briers was yellow carded for a high tackle on Nathan Bailey and the visitors responded with a try right on the interval and then another 2 minutes into the second period. Blaydon needed to hit back quickly and so they did.

Director of rugby Micky Ward said afterwards “I was really pleased with the way we came through. We just didn’t do ourselves justice in the first half when our ill discipline let us down”.

Andrew Baggett’s 14th minute penalty looked to be the only score of the half until the dying seconds when a Fylde rolling maul took it almost to the line where they whipped it out for winger Oli Brennand to touch down.

Worse was to follow when still down to 14 men Fylde grabbed a second score through flanker Steve McGinnis after their forceful lock Paul Arnold had stormed into the 22, and Blaydon were staring into an abyss at 3-14.

Substitutions were made, the game opened up and in no time at all Blaydon had turned it around. Lock Chris Wearmouth grabbed a superb solo effort when at a line-out from a penalty to the corner he spotted a gap and raced clear unchallenged. Baggett added the extras and was on the mark again 5 minutes later after man of the match Harry Bate had set up and then scored the decisive try.

The flanker set off on a brilliant run into the 22 from half-way before moving it on to Tom Bramwell whose pass to the wing disappointingly went down. Fortunately however Fylde infringed from the clearance and Bate was driven over from the driving line-out.

John Brennan

Blaydon make it 3 wins out of 3

Blaydon’s 680 mile round trip to the south coast ended successfully despite playing most of the game a man short having picked up 4 yellow cards, and conceding a try after just 2 minutes.

The home side, fighting for survival in the relegation zone, were sharp in the backs but had no answer to the power of the Blaydon pack, even when depleted.

Liam Perkins the Worthing No8 scored the opener when he stormed through a gap in the middle of a line-out, Joe Govette adding the conversion, but the Blaydon response was immediate. Chris Wearmouth touched down from a driving maul 25 metres out and minutes later man of the match Harry Bate went over in similar style.

Winger Sean Brown made it 7-15 when he scooted over in the corner but by the interval Worthing had narrowed the gap to 1 point with a good effort by Oliver Richards who latched onto a chip ahead, Govette again on the mark.

An Andrew Baggett penalty early in the second period improved Blaydon’s advantage but Richards edged Worthing in front with his second try, this time from an excellent handling movement and the home side enjoyed a period of domination.

Two more Blaydon tries effectively settled the issue however, replacement centre Tom Bramwell grabbing the first to clinch a bonus point and Baggett adding the extras. Another replacement, Andrew Davies then scored a fifth try, a typical scrum-half effort to dart in under the posts with Baggett taking the score to 19-32.

Worthing, for whom this was a must win game, battled on to the end and secured their own try bonus through full-back Tom McLean when Blaydon were down to 12 men in the closing stages.

Bricks retain the Durham 4th Team Shield – Blaydon Bricks 22, Winlaton Saxons 0

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

Winlaton Photos:
http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/winlatonvulcans/photos/winlaton-saxons-v-blaydon-bric-473572.html#image=11318642

Scorers
Trys: Keith Winter 2,Coatsey
Conv: Joe 2
Penalty: Joe

In another close encounter with Winlaton, Bricks proved to have too much strength in depth for the valiant Saxon side who tackled well and contested till the final whistle. Bricks took victory against a very spirited Winlaton Saxon team who had on show a number of youngster who played well and will be good for Winlaton going forward. Special mention of the 9 who was a pain in the @rse all game and the 15, you tackled non stop.

It was decided to take a bus and have everyone arrive as a team, warm up together, get the cobwebs out, etc. we arrived at 1:30 for a 3pm KO, what do teams do for 1.5 hours before a game when you can’t go in the bar…….

It did not work, we had far too much time to think, it all got a bit too complex, too much thought was going into new options/moves, we were almost doing a training session, the thing, Bricks just don’t do and when the game started it showed. People were forcing passes, not passing, missing passes, dropping balls and getting all emotional, about what was really a simple game plan, batter them with big forwards at pace and have the quick backs run in a few trys.

I made the mistake of emphasising, don’t retaliate and get sent from the pitch, some people took that a bit too far and played conservative to stop getting yellow cards. There will always be good players who play on the edge of the envelop and occasionally get it wrong. we can except that, the ‘reds’ we can’t.

Next time we will turn up 30 mins before, a quick sherry, get changed, go out, play ‘keepy uppies’ throw some balls in a circle, have Keith miss a line out and then kick off.

Highs / Lows

· Paul Winters short arms struck again, up goes a shout, a GB dashes out, then drops the ball for all to see.
· Joe Snowdon, normally so accurate on kicking, must have practised too much, as he miss a few, however 2 kicks ended in tries, who says we don’t practice this sort of stuff
· We had one of the quickest back divisions seen in Bricks shorts since me (Bruce) and Roger helped the Bricks to 1000 points in a season. We definitely benefit from the no train, no play rules, with the senior teams and the fact that a number of the lads can only play about 6 to 8 games a season. None of the backs on display had played in any of the 2s/3s cup matches, it was just a very good Bricks side. We have used 68 players in the Bricks games this season so far and most were available for this game, so sorry to those who we could not get on the bench.
· Unfortunately Stu Reay for some reason decided to stop passing to the fly half, which kind of killed them as an attacking option.
· Lowsey big hit on the 10 in the first few minutes convinced him he was a marauding back row. He’s not.
· Our first try was a great driving maul, pure power, game plan in action, Keith dived over. It was totally effective, so we stopped doing that.
· Second try was a great inter-change between Coatsey who fed Lowsey and was on hand to take it back and run in, totally effective, so we stopped that.
· Our scrum was totally dominant, taking a couple against the head
· Our line out, Horse lifted at the from, the Saxons hooker could not get it over the top of him.
· Windy controlled a 5 metre scrum over the line and knocked on further than Joe could kick on the day (sorry Windy)
· People forced passes that didn’t need to be made, then didn’t make passes with clear overlap.
· I can only image Joe’s arms were too long as he dropped a high ball
· It was not going to plan, I didn’t see Keith drop a ball, he scored 2 trys, didn’t get carded and played a blinder.
· Winlaton tackling was superb, stopping many a foray into their territory.
· There was some big hits from the Bricks and Saxons will have felt them on Sunday, as our lads did.
· Grumpy came on and push a maul over, it was dead funny, when he ended up on top of it. Someone had to lift him off…..
· Even the Coaching team split to different sides of the pitch, that didn’t help, seems it was my aftershave
· See the photos there was many ex-Bricks who had helped us win previous years
· Durham RFU and Gateshead hospitality was great and the bar taking hopefully made it all worth while for them
· Drinking went on into the wee hours of Sunday morning in Swalwell and we went home with pizza, which seems made Cliff bad…. Nowt to do with the circa 2 gallons+ of beer.
This all sounds reasonably negative, but given the amount talent and experience we had on the pitch, the collective ability won through.

Winlaton also had a few Blaydon lads on loan, to be returned sometime in the future; Dale Pattinson and Rob Pyle, Paul Daglish, all had very good games and are developing into good players, look forward to getting you back into the Bricks, when your Senior team careers are over..

Bruce

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More match report to follow from Davy Hall, watch out for that one

Durham Cup Final 2014

1 Paul Winter (Grumpy)
2 Keith Winter
3 Finnas (Brett)
4 Horse
5 Marge
6 Harry
7 Stu Bailey
8 Windy (Strachs)
9 Stu Reay
10 Chris Coates
11 Liam Bradley (Chris Collins) (Paul Dingley)
12 Chester (Thacks)
13 Lowsey
14 Joe Snowdon (Craig Barlow)
15 Savs (Damien)

Game of 2 halves – Blaydon XV 39, RF Gouda 27

With the Bricks playing the 4th Team Cup final the next day a very mixed team was assembled for a social game with RF Gouda touring Newcastle. It had:

– U17s, U18s
– guests,
– Phil Ritson (on the wing, Howey, was doing selection)
– Jason Leng on the wing first, for 10 mins before resting and coming back on later,
– John Curry who was talked into playing for a seat on the Cup final bus the next day,
– Hopey turn out and got some abuse
– ??

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313@N08/collections/72157643442443485/

With Gouda having arrived that morning and spending a few hours in Newcastle Bars it took them a while to sober up, so the first half was mainly Blaydon and second half Gouda scored all their points.

Highs/Lows -rets to come from Phil / Howey

– Jason try saving tackle, then a few missed
– Young Mr Cooney was substituted for running the length of the pitch and jinking past too many players
– Ritson dropping to a praying position in the hope an overhead kick to the wing would bounce out
– Matty Bell, now on 8 trys, is this the try that blows his brother Rob out of the try competition this season
– the look on Marcel face when John Curry stepped up to drink against him in the pint competition
– Gouda had 3 German lads with them who they met on the ferry and one played for them

RF Gouda – great bunch of lads, donated a fantastic signed shirt to the club

Fill your boots, enjoy the ‘toon’ – What goes on tour, stays on tour.

044

045

Blaydon XV to entertain RFC Gouda on Friday 4th April KO 7pm

Calling all Past players and U17s & U18s

With Bricks playing Cup final on Saturday 5th, we are looking to field a side to match a combination of Vets and U18s on Friday 4th april. See the mail from Gouda below, promises to be a good social game

RFC Gouda are small and social club of about 30 seniors and to dutch standards healthy youth department of 150 members. Trip party of 22 will mainly consist of veterans and a few younger lads to push our wheelchairs :) please keep this in mind when you select your players.
Due to injuries we have 17 players and this will be our only game during this trip.

Blaydon continue winning ways – Blaydon 22 Blackheath 16

On a day of more downs than ups Blaydon were in arrears for most of the second half until No8 Jason Smithson came to the rescue 9 minutes from time with a trademark try from a driving maul, his second of the game.

Andrew Baggett added the extras with an excellent conversion and then rubbed salt into the visitors wounds with a penalty in the final play of the game.

Despite having an abundance of possession and territory and at times producing impressive individual back play Blaydon somehow contrived to get it wrong at a string of set-pieces and had 3 clearance kicks charged down in their 22, one of which resulted in a gift try for Blackheath.

After 13 minutes of aimless kicking they opened the scoring when Chris Wearmouth gathered in at a line-out and Smithson went over from the driving maul. Almost from the restart however an Andrew Davies clearance rebounded into the arms of visiting flanker Jesse Liston who took full advantage.

Simon Whatling put over the conversion and then a penalty to give Blackheath the lead but after Blaydon had spurned a certain try with a forward pass the visitors pack crumbled in front of their posts with Tom Bason and then David Allen yellow carded for pulling down scrums in retreat.

A penalty try, improved by Baggett restored the home advantage until right on the interval when another charge-down resulted in a simple penalty for Whatling to make it 12-13 at the break, the same player then successful again early in the second period.

Nathan Bailey, Harry Bate, Tom Grimes and Sean Brown all created chances in between some more aimless kicking but justice was done for the overall better side with Smithson’s late effort.

John Brennan

Blaydon IIs retain Durham County Cup

imageBlaydon IIs 35, Billingham IIs 15

Match report to follow
Saturday 29th March
Venue Sunderland RFC – Ashbrooke

Blaydon return to winning ways – Wharfedale 13 Blaydon 37

With both sides on a 5 match losing run this looked set to be a close encounter but it was Blaydon who found their form with a bang, running in 5 tries to record a welcome runaway victory.

The visitors were simply stronger in every phase of the game, scoring tries on 2 occasions when a man down because of a yellow card, and so dominant in the second period that Wharfedale never set foot in the Blaydon 22 after the break.

Tom Barrett for the home side and then Andrew Baggett landed early penalties before Tom Penny ran in Blaydon’s first try, the winger applying the finish to a smart three-quarters movement.

Wharfedale then forged in front for a short while when a hack-on bounced favourably for lock forward Tom Powell but the visitors dominance was soon restored. Baggett struck another penalty and directly from the restart Chris Wearmouth crashed over from a driving maul with Baggett again on target.

In a rare visit up-field Barrett put over another penalty to make it an unrealistic 13-18 score-line at the interval but from thereon the home challenge was non existent.

Baggett, in sparkling form against his old club, put in a clever kick ahead to release Tom Grimes for try No3 and then Penny grabbed his second when he stepped inside his man in fine style and the scoring was completed on the hour when Baggett sent in full-back Nathan Bailey clear with an inside pass.

Having been thrashed by Blaydon both home and away Wharfedale could only take consolation in fly-half Barrett picking up 8 points to become the first ever for his club to reach the 300 mark in a league season.

John Brennan

Durham Cup venues confirmed for IIs & IVs

2nd Team Cup
Blaydon IIs v Billingham IIs
29th March 2014
Venue – Sunderland RFC
KO – 15.00

4th Team Shield
Blaydon Bricks v Winlaton Vulcans IIs
Saturday 5th April 2014
Venue – Gateshead RFC
KO – 15.00

Bricks league run derailed – Saturday 22nd March; Ashington IIs 36, Bricks 12

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26086313%40N08/collections/

Scores: Trys Joe Melia and Ryan Convery
Conv Joe Snowdon

With most of the Bricks cup team available and Joe Melia, Matty Bell and Ryan Convey on loan from the 3s for the missing positions, we arrived at Ashington with a decent level of confidence following our current run of League victories. This was a good test for us as the week prior Ashington had drawn with Winlaton IIs, our cup final opponents.
Ashington had a squad of about 26 players and a lot of them a decent size, we were thinking scrums could be a struggle. It all started well our scrum was well on top, even stealing their ball. The Ash. hooker compensated by striking very early every time, which was not picked up by the referee.
Our team were flat, we had the ability on the park to win this one, but we were operating at 100 mile an hour, making loads of mistakes; knock on, drops, wrong options and getting caught in our own half and turning over the ball. It was not the controlled game we needed and Ashington lived on scraps and made a break away try from their own half.

High and Lows:
• Billy Bell, Matty’s dad made a return to rugby, but was yellow carded 10 minutes in to his Bricks’ debut, better luck next game.
• Joe Melia and Matty Bell made their 5th appearance this season and were awarded their Bricks polo shirts.
• Ryan & Joe Melia put in 100%,both scoring trys
• Harry and Stu Bailey were hitting everything and stopping them in their tracks.
• Savs and Joe Snowdon made some good breaks, but the defence, notably the 15 from Ashington was good and off loads were not made in time, or the support was not with them.
• Big #21 on the hoof, Joe Melia stripped the ball off him, how silly did he look running without the ball…..

The outcome, one to forget, felt like a game people were trying to stay away from injury for the final, so a lost for a game we should have won and hopefully we got all the silliness out of our systems and next week gives us a final chance against Sunderland IIIs for everyone to turn up this time, in what is another league double header at Blaydon.

1 Paul Winter
2 Keith Winter (Grumpy)
3 Joe Melia (Charlie)
4 Ryan Convery
5 Marge (Billy Bell, yes Matty’s Dad)
6 Harry
7 Strachs
8 Windy (Matty Bell)
9 Stu Bailey
10 Savs
11 Damien (Paul Dingley)
12 Chester
13 Thacks
14 Liam
15 Joe Snowdon