Sat 27 Oct 2018
1st XV won 69 – 26 at home to Barnard Castle. Match report thanks to Walter Ritchie:
Ground conditions were excellent and in spite of a chilly wind from the North, this proved the case when 15 tries were scored.
Northern began with the intention of dominating the forward exchanges and a typical boisterous run by Chalky White gave Harrison Clark the opportunity to open his account with a try which Donal Collins improved. From the kick off, which Northern secured, the clearance kick was charged down and a wicked bounce allowed Barnard to score a fortunate try which they also converted. Northern's pack responded and from every phase of the game, dominated the ball. Sadly this was interrupted when winger Iain Lyndon received a heavy tackle and was knocked out. He had leave the pitch and go to hospital as a precaution but I am happy to report that he has recovered well. The backs were reorganised with full back Johnny Woodhead moving to wing, Donal Collins to full back and Cam Walker from the bench to fly half, where he had played well at Whitby the previous week. Tries flowed with Harrison Clark scoring another 4, Louie Tang 2 and Johnny Woodhead 1. Barnard Castle did get one of their own but Northern lead convincingly 50 -14 at half time. A great improvement in the home sides discipline was noted with only 1 penalty given against them!
Barnard Castle scored on the resumption then Northern rang the changes with Ben Smallwood replacing Liam Mullick and Michael Henderson replacing Chalky White. Northern did relax a little in the second half but did score 3 more tries with Louie Tang completing a hat trick only to be out scored by Harrison Clark, who crossed for 2 more trys to take his total to 7. Quite an outstanding performance!! The previous holder was Julian Hayes with 6 trys in the nineties. The only down side was allowing the visitors to score a fourth try to gain a bonus point but overall this was undoubtedly the best performance of the season, one which we intend to carry forward next week at Acklam. So please come along and support the team.
