The day got off to a bad start when our entire back line cried off and no one from the 2s would travel we had 14 players but under the new candy rules Alnwick also had to play with 14.

The home team moved the ball about quickly finding our weakness out wide. We had to play a flanker on the wing; his natural instinct was to move toward the breakdown leaving acres of space. They moved the ball wide and ran in 2 tries. We stopped this by keeping our winger out wide for the duration of the game.

Our forwards matched Alnwick in the rucks and mauls but at the line out Alnwick managed to get their jumper way up high preventing us getting anywhere near him, he was playing the ball well before he landed at the first, second and 3rd phases we did well but when we tried to pass the ball along the line we ran into problems a scratch back line does not move the ball quickly we had no set play so play broke down on a regular bases this was the difference between the two teams.

We defended well in the centre of the park but when the chance came the well organised Alnwick back division scored every time, one of their tries was a very well executed move which was applauded by both teams. We never gave up and made Alnwick work hard. Stracs went over on his ankle but soldiered on and Scott twisted his knee he too remained on the pitch, but with 15mins to go he again injured his knee and the ref called the game. In all Alnwick ran in 7 tries one unconverted. Our lads never gave up but we were never going to get anything having so many lads playing out of position. Unfortunately Scott joins the ranks of our injured players and won’t be seen for some time

On the end of a six match winning run Blaydon disappointingly could only manage a draw last week but roared back to top form with at times a brilliant performance against a side 2 places above them in the league and themselves on a winning sequence.

They had to recover from a 3rd minute set back when Wharfedale with all the possession scored an impressive try through scrum-half Philip Woodhead but from then on it was all Blaydon. Not only did they successfully snuff out the many Wharfedale attacks long before they reached the danger zone but were absolutely irresistible going forwards, scoring 7 tries in the process.

A penalty try was inevitable when the visitors pulled down a rolling maul as it crossed their line, and then came a burst of 2 tries in 6 minutes by on loan full-back Zach Kibirige. Having squandered 2 lineouts near the line they were handed a third opportunity further out and this time held on to their own ball to move it through the forwards and Kibirige to finish off with the neatest of side-steps.

Quickly they then found themselves under pressure at the other end and having turned it over were unable to get in a clearance kick and left with no choice but to run from their own line. They wisely shipped it out to Kibirige who set off on a length of the field run leaving defenders for dead to touch down what will be a contender for ‘try of the season’.

A delighted Director of rugby Micky Ward afterwards described the young winger as ‘international class’, adding “He gets a touch of the ball once or twice and he scores”. Ward went on “:.We were very wary of them coming up here but the lads stood firm and we earned the right to enjoy ourselves”.

An early score-line of 0-7 had progressed to 22-7 by the interval after which the tries came thick and fast.

with Harry Bate combining to put Chris Wearmouth over and then scoring himself after Keith Laughlin had gathered in at a line-out.

Wharfedale finally pulled one back through Christian Georgiou but Blaydon were unstoppable, Tom Jeffery racing in from half way, followed by a barnstorming man-of -the -match Ben Morris, and Andrew Baggett completing the rout with 5 conversions and a brace of penalties.

John Brennan]

Cup rugby this week, with Blaydon Development playing away at Seaton Carew.  The opposition 2nds from the start were the team making the running and attacked our lines with enthusiasm but after 5 minutes Blaydon fired off. A text book move the back line punched a hole in the Seaton defence and scored under the posts converted. 0—7

Seaton continued to work hard catching and driving forward from the line out, but when in touching distance they suffered white line fever and were bundled out of play. Not deterred they stuck to their task. They were first to the break downs and secured the ball almost unopposed on every occasion. The home team from yet another line out attacked and scored in the corner 5–7.

Did we wake up? not really but when we put our minds to the task in hand we managed to score. Stracs drove over from the back of a ruck to make it 5–10 unconverted. The home team plugged away and again from a well drilled catch and drive they scored in the corner to make it 10–10.

When in possession we had too much time and space, it seemed too easy and we never moved up a gear, finally on 25 minutes a good phase of possession allow Blaydon to crash over in the corner 10–17 half time.

In the second half Seaton began to tire spending too much energy fighting for the ball Blaydon began to look the better team and the chances began to appear, dean ran in a second try 10–24 and Robbie ran a great line to  score  from recycled ball 10–31.

We started to move the ball around and created space allowing the wingers to push home, Marty found out the hard way that  when  near the line and you have defenders all around its best to dive  not run over the line then get tackled dropping the ball. Seaton never gave up and again from a line out their openside flanker caught the ball at the tail and ran through the Blaydon pack unchallenged to score 15–31.

Finally Blaydon began to play and put the game to bed with another attack which sent Joe cutting a path through 3 or 4 players to score 15–38 more forward pressure at the end resulted in the last score of the game.