Saturday 5th. April 2008
Ponteland 8 Blyth 10
This was another excellent performance from Third Division Blyth to win on the ground of their First Division opponents. Ponteland coach John Mann, himself an ex Blyth player was quick to praise the visitor’s performance and generously admitted that although the game was a friendly he had not fielded an under strength side.
Facing a sharp wind Blyth spent much of the first quarter of the game on the defence, their attempted counters frequently being thwarted by fine touch kicking from home fly half Dan Walton. Blyth’s defensive play was first class and despite their territorial advantage it took Ponteland 30 minutes to get any points on the board, a penalty from Walton. Blyth then shook the home side with a series of attacks marked by excellent handling, finally scoring a try in the left hand corner through full back Jason Smith.
Photo: Callum Bradwell looks as if he has to take Ponteland on all by himself.
Blyth’s 5-3 interval lead was not a fair reflection of the game so far and it stung Ponteland into upping the pace and for a time Blyth’s line was virtually under siege. Eventually after twice ignoring overlaps, Ponteland scored in the right hand corner through centre Stuart Reid. Having defended superbly throughout the game Blyth began to attack on their own account with some excellent kicking relieving the pressure and driving Ponteland deep into their own half.
The last quarter of the game saw Blyth in the ascendancy and eventually a hurried defensive kick was charged down and ever alert back row Wayne Davie crashed over the line. Ponteland had the chance to win the game in the dying moments with a penalty in front of the posts, but Walton’s kick dipped under the crossbar.
Photo: Blyth backs force Ponteland out wide yet again
Blyth centre Scott Robinson had an excellent game giving an object lesson in captaincy, leading by example and continually encouraging his players. Blyth coach Carlos Correia was pleased with the performance which he said was an all round effort.
Saturday April 12th. 2008
Seaham Harbour 10 Blyth 37
Although things turned out well at the end this was something of a Jekyll and Hyde performance from Blyth. Facing a strong wind the visitors made a bright start
launching several enterprising attacks and taking the lead with a well struck penalty by fly-half Sutherland. An excellent running move involving good hands by most
of the backs culminated in right-wing Davis Herron scoring an exciting try putting Blyth 8 - 0 ahead. The visitors then lost hooker Dan Cole with a knee injury, veteran
Kevin Barratt replacing him.
For the second quarter of the game Blyth went to pieces coming under pressure, much of it their own making. a succession of errors, dropped balls, knock-ons,
inept tackles, wrong options and needless penalties handed the ascendancy to Seaham and only last ditch tackling and some good touch kicking, particularly from
Sutherland , kept Blyth afloat. A penalty from fly-half Chris Burdess cut the lead and then following a spell of intense pressure on the Blyth line Kelvin Bowdrey,
second row,touched down and Burdess converted giving Seaham a narrow 10-8 lead at the break.
The second half began with some evenly contested skirmishes and Blyth were forced to replace prop Lee Dunwoodie (lower back injury) with Mac Morris. Ten minutes
into the half Blyth finally hit form and took a grip on the game which they never relaxed. High kicks unsettled the home defence allowing left-wing Callum Bradwell to
follow up and provide a scoring pass to centre Scott Robinson and then Sutherland also converted his own try to put Blyth 20 -10 up. Stockton referee Mick West then
awarded Blyth a penalty try with half the Seaham team caught offside, preventing a certain try - Sutherland converted to stretch the visitors lead to 27 - 10.
Seaham to their credit defended heroically when they might have collapsed. Blyth were restricted to tries from Barratt forcing his way through a several forwards to
touch down and Dunn after neat handling along the backs giving Blyth a comfortable final margin of 37 - 10 although they were unfortunate to have two further
Barratt tries disallowed.
After some very fractious encounters between the two sides in recent seasons it was pleasing to see this game played in an excellent spirit with good sportsmanship
from both sides throughout the game.
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