1st Team News

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Luctonians 31 Blaydon 17

Hopes of a bounce-back to National League 2 North for Blaydon were effectively scuppered in the opening 40 minutes of this play-off for promotion when the home side, playing against the elements, ran in 3 tries unanswered.
Luctonians on the day made better use of the conditions and with crisper handling and running were deserved winners, Blaydon only coming into it in the final quarter with 2 tries of their own.
Blaydon started well enough but 10 minutes of pressure brought no reward and when they dropped the ball on half-way were immediately made to pay. Man of the match Josh Watkins, the Luctonians full-back, sped clear down the wing for the first of his 2 tries and fly-half Lewis Silver added the conversion to make it 7-0.
When Blaydon erred as they had for the opening score Watkins was in again, this time from a smart diagonal break and on 35 minutes quick handling by the home side resulted in try No3 from winger Drew Cheshire with Silver once more on target.
With the interval approaching Blaydon finally got their side of the score-board moving having worked their way upfield for Jamie Guy to put over a penalty and make it 19-3 at the break.
Sadly the interval brought no relief for the visitors with Luctonians continuing as they had left off with 2 more tries in the opening 15 minutes of the second period. Their hooker Guy Kirby crossed near the posts from a forward drive and winger John Morris also touched down under the woodwork from an excellent handling movement with Silver landing a 3rd conversion to make it 31-3 with 20 minutes remaining.
Having been on the back foot for much of the previous 60 minutes Blaydon at last began to dominate the forward exchanges and salvage some pride. Five minutes of persistent pressure in the home 22, led in style by skipper Keith Laughlin, brought an opening score for centre Alex Clark plus the extras from Guy.
It was now the turn of the home side to be on the back foot and unable to cope with the power of the opposition forwards, and Blaydon at least had the consolation of finishing strongly and securing a second try when Guy went over from a breakdown and added the conversion himself.

John Brennan

 

Durham Senior Cup – Blaydon v Darlington MP at Crowtrees

GAME CANCELLED – Tuesday 16th April

KO 7:30

#pumpthecrow

 

Blaydon secure playoff spot in style, Vale of Lune 15 Blaydon 87

Blaydon will play Luctonians away on 27th April, winner takes the final promotion spot to National Two North

 

 

Vale of Lune  15   Blaydon  80
It was a case of mission accomplished for Blaydon yesterday when they picked up the 5 points needed to guarantee them a second place finish in the league and a play off for promotion.
Not that it took much accomplishing against a Vale of Lune side already doomed to relegation and that had shipped over a 1000 points in the league thus far including a 92-12 hammering at Crow Trees in the opening game of the season.
Blaydon will now travel to Luctonians, runners-up in the Midlands Division, on Saturday 27th April to determine which of them will return to National League Two North for next season.
Vale of Lune were outclassed from start to finish against a Blaydon side short of 7 regulars but still more then strong enough to take their try tally to 152, their league points to exactly 100, and in the process reach their own milestone of 1000 points registered.
Lock forward Jack Davidson got the scoreboard rolling in the 6th minute from good work by the pack and was quickly followed over the try line by Dan Marshall who skipped through the defence in typical style.
Hooker Sean Pyle was next, winger Jack Appleton raced clear from half-way when Vale dropped the ball, and by the interval Davidson had touched down twice more to secure his hat-trick.
Leading by 40 points to nil at the break Blaydon continued where they had left off with scores from Dan Taylor and Marshall his second before easing off and allowing the home side some territory and possession.
Fraser Stores, Tom Smith and Chris Haswell contributed 15 points between them for Vale but the tries were still coming thick and fast at the other end from Matt Charlton and 2 more from Appleton to make it another hat-trick hero on the day.
 
John Brennan

 

Blaydon 52 Kirkby Lonsdale 0

Blaydon  52   Kirkby Lonsdale  0
 
With just one game remaining Blaydon remain on schedule to clinch the all important runner-up spot in the North Premier League. Yesterdays 6th successive win over a disappointing Kirkby Lonsdale side was never in doubt from the 5th minute onwards when James Cooney, making his 100th appearance for the club, finished off a smart move to secure the first of Blaydon’s 8 tries.
That said however, what happened next was 20 minutes with lots of possession, lots of passing and lots of short scrums but nothing to show for it. Hooker Cam Bell eventually got the scoreboard moving again after Jamie Guy had stormed into the 22, and by the interval centre Alex Clark  with blistering pace shot through  the visitors defence to make it 19-0.
Just 90 seconds into the second period Guy Graham made a positive break into the 22 to send in Dan Taylor for the 4th try and the only question was how had it taken so long to secure what might be a vital bonus point.
Three minutes later Keith Laughlin, who had been involved in much of the first half pressure, broke from a set-piece to send in wing Jack Appleton for his 16th try of the season.
The try of the game arrived on 47 minutes with full-back Ryan Foreman running from his own 22 to release Cooney who in turn went past his man with ease, and second-row Liam Wright finished it off from 30 metres with the speed of a winger.
The one-sided affair continued and try No7 was scored, a second for Taylor, after much good handling and a bit of juggling, with the scrum-half then laying on the final score for Robert Lenderyou to make it 8 in the game and 140 for the season.
Just as they had in the first period the visitors had a spell on the front foot at the end of the half but all to no avail and they remained pointless at the end, just as they had in the home game between the 2 clubs.
Blaydon now travel to Vale of Lune in 7 days time where success will guarantee a promotion play-off with the second placed side in the Midlands Premier League.
 
John Brennan

Saturday 6th April – From the Director’s Chair

From the Director’s Chair

It has been a long season and here we are at the last home league game. I hope it has been as an enjoyable one for you as it has been for me.

 

Getting our brand new AGP has really been a game changer for the way Blaydon as a whole play and train. A big thank you must go out to the RFU and everyone involved in the process of getting it to the Crowtrees. For me it has allowed us to play a brand of rugby that is enjoyable for the spectators as well as the players as shown by a record number of try’s scored this season and we are still going.

 

Another pleasing aspect to this season is the huge development of the players joining and coming through. Some mentions have to go out to Alex Clark who I met for a coffee to try and convince him Blaydon was the place for him to play his rugby. He was a little apprehensive to begin with as he did not know if he was up to the standard but he really has developed into a cracking player and is pivotal to our very exciting backline. Alex Dodds is another who has pleased me with his work ethic on and off the rugby field. His willingness to learn has seen him play many times for the 1st XV and is looking like a great asset for the future. Rob Lenderyou has come on leaps and bounds from first joining the Club developing into a future leader with an outstanding skill set.

It was brilliant for the club to have two International rugby players in Anthony Harvey (Malta) and Andrew Steinberg (Latvia) recognised. Well done lads.

We have also a great amount of blaydon youth players who have come through overtime and after a hard last two seasons have really learnt a lot and grown into exciting rugby players hopefully for many years to come. Such players as Cam Bell, Liam Wright, Jack Davidson, Matt Charlton, Frazer Wilson, Nathan Horsfall, Hugh Mongan, Dan Taylor, Alex Charlton, Matthew Jenkinson, Nathan Bailey, Jack Appleton and Dan Marshall as well as many others. Our defence coach and Captain Keith has coached and led the team tremendously all year and am hoping he decides to continue for at least one more season as he has been outstanding.

This then leads me into a special mention to our centurion today, James Cooney. Although he constantly drives to the club even though he lives 100 yards door to door he is ever present and brings so much enthusiasm and energy at training and game day. James is a future Blaydon captain for certain. He is a pleasure to have at the club and hope to have him for another 100 games in the future.

Finally I would like to welcome Kirkby to Crowtrees. Our away fixture was in my opinion our best performance all season in very testing conditions. Hopefully we can match that performance and result this Saturday and get one step closer to a playoff place.

Saturday 6th April – From the touchline – Kirkby Lonsdale

A warm welcome to one and all in this our last home game of this season.

I am sure you will agree we have seen some magnificent tries and it has been a real boost to win so many games after two successive relegations. Congratulations to all those players who have entertained us so well and lets hope it continues to the very end of the season.

In total we have scored 132 tries including last weekend at Kendal. Of these 78 were from the backs and 51 from the forwards with 1 penalty try.

The leading try scorers( as provided by John Brennan) are as follows;

  • Dan Marshall 23
  • Jack Appleton 15
  • Keith Laughlin 13
  • Nathan Bailey 12
  • Cam Bell 7

 

By comparison Morgan Passman of Tynedale leads National 2 North with 28, and Craig Holland of Chinnor with 22 in National 1.

Our total of points scored at 884 is less than some earlier years but I believe we will have surpassed our highest tries scored

Today we welcome Kirkby Lonsdale and their supporters and I know we will give them the courtesy of a fine welcome as they did when we went there in early December where we played in incessant rain throughout. Its all very well celebrating our past performances but we will have to again be at our best to overcome difficult opposition today who have beaten Wirral and Billingham in the last 3 weeks

Much can happen in all leagues in terms of promotion and relegation before the end of the season and it will be fascinating to see who goes up and who goes down.

I expect a number oy you may wish to go to the Vale of Lune next week but there will not be additional places on the Bus, and thus those who do wish to attend, and I hope it is as many as possible, must make their own transport arrangements.

Have a good summer !
Bill Locke

 

I am grateful to Jim Huxley for the following helpful synopsis of the present state of play on Promotion Run In:  https://www.blaydonrfc.co.uk/promotion-run-in/

 

Promotion run in

Blaydon are now approaching the last two return matches of the season against Kirkby Lonsdale at home (H) and Vale of Lune away (A) and below is my summary of the situation in North Premier, also a review should we come in second place, on our likely opponents in the play-off. This would take place on Saturday 27th April.
Our first two results against our remaining opponents shows Blaydon winning 36-0 and 92-12 respectively and a repeat of two 5 point scores would do the job!

Currently Hull are top having already achieved promotion to National 2 North some weeks ago and Blaydon are battling it out with Billingham and Harrogate for 2nd place, however, Billingham’s loss last week to Alnwick, gives them a difficult task particularly as their opponents this weekend are champions Hull. The team finishing 2nd will play the similar placed team in the Midlands Division (more of that later).

Presently Blaydon are 2nd, one point in front of our Yorkshire rivals with the same number of wins but more importantly, more bonus points and a far superior points differential.

 

The outstanding fixtures are:

  • 6th April:
    • BLAYDON v KIRKBY LONSDALE (H) who are safe.
    • HARROGATE v ILKLEY (H) who are safe but a local derby.
    • BILLINGHAM v HULL (H) who are champions.
  • 13th April:
    • VALE OF LUNE v BLAYDON (A) Vale already relegated.
    • HARROGATE v SANDAL (H) a Yorkshire derby.
    • BILLINGHAM v LYMM (H) who may still need points.

Upon reflection, we are in the driving seat for the play-off place but there is still some way to go.

The play-off will almost certainly be away to whichever Midlands side finishes second as the Midlands’ sides have better ‘win’ records than any in the Northern Group and therefore unless Luctonians have a dip in form, lose in the last 2 games and finish 2nd, Midlands team will have home advantage.

Currently Scunthorpe, after a recent patch of poor results, have come good and are 2 points clear of Luctonians but the Hereford side are currently going well and returning massive victories.

The outstanding fixtures in this division are as follows:

  • 6th April:
    •  SCUNTHORPE v BRIDGENORTH (H) currently 4th.
    •  LUCTONIANS v DONCASTER PHOENIX (H) currently 8th in the table.
  • 13th April:
    •  BROADSTREET v SCUNTHORPE (A) currently 5th in the table.
    •  LITCHFIELD v LUCTONIANS (A) Litchfield currently 12th.

On paper, Luctonians seemingly have the easier run-in but need Scunthorpe to either lose a match or achieve no bonus points to overtake them on goal difference. It is all in the melting pot and a lot could still happen if, and I say if, we were to finish in second place the game will be played on Saturday 27th April with either a long travel on the Friday night to play at Luctonians or an easier journey to Scunthorpe on the Saturday morning.

Either way, it will not be easy and of course we still have to get the right results in our final fixtures to finish 2nd in our league and it must be pointed out that Kirkby Lonsdale recently defeated Billingham 17 – 5 in a re-arranged game.

JIM HUXLEY

Kendal 21, Blaydon 57

Blaydon and Harrogate both take maximum points in the play off race, while Billingham lose at Alnwick with 2 games to go.

Midland Premier – Luctonians still in 2nd place

 

Kendal  21   Blaydon  57
 
With bonus points absolutely vital in the 3-way battle for the important second place in the North Premier League Blaydon took on 3rd bottom Kendal in the knowledge that they had not lost to anyone outside the top 4 since October, and duly despatched them in a 9 tries to 3 rout.
The home side defended well enough in the first period when their line was crossed on only 3 occasions but after the break it was one-way traffic with Blaydon seemingly scoring every time that Kendal dropped the ball.
First to score was hooker Cam Bell after Keith Laughlin had driven through the home defence to find him with a short pass, and then leading try scorer Dan Marshall took over.
The centre firstly shot through a gap at a rate that split the cover wide open and then added a second when he again showed a clean pair of heels to anyone in a home shirt – an absolute belter of a try. Jamie Guy was on target with 2 conversions to make it 0-19 at the interval.
Alex Clark barged his way through the middle to secure try No4 and although Dan Barker replied for Kendal, Blaydon were running the ball at will and further scores were registered by David Lyall and Laughlin.
Barker then grabbed his second in a lull in the visitors scoring but Blaydon full-back Ryan Foreman joined the line in style to race in from 15 metres and soon after Marshall completed his hat-trick.
Kendal wing-forward Kirk Chettleburgh crossed for a 3rd home score, all of them converted by fly-half and leading points scorer Glen Weightman but fittingly it was Blaydon that had the last word when Robert Lenderyou applied the finishing touch to a massive overlap.
Guy’s 4 second-half conversions took the Blaydon total over the 50 points mark, and his side retain second position with 2 games to go and everything to play for.
 
John Brennan

Saturday 30th March – 1st team selection for Kendal

Kick off at Kendal 3pm

Kendal XV Vs Blaydon Bricks KO 1pm