On a very blustery afternoon at Greenwood Road the Billingham Ladies prepared to face WBR with a 2pm kick off. After having assessed the weather, opposition willingness to travel and everything else, the game was on.

Mark Piert was the man in the middle, having reffed (we think) 3 games already including the Billingham u16 boys home win. We were grateful to have a referee! Mark was as good as ever in the middle, the game was allowed to flow and lots of ball in play time was had.

WBR brought 12 or so players, so Billingham with a large squad lent them 3 to make sure we were playing 15 vs 15 on the day.

Overall a close game, but WBR pulled away through the middle period of the second half when Billingham began to tire from defending phase after phase of forwards carries and space opened up for some very quick backs in WBRs ranks. Billingham did have the better of the first half in terms of possession and territory, and went into half time a point ahead which we couldn't hold onto.

Some excellent performances around the park, but our forward of the match went to Kirsty who had a mega shift in the second row, and Zoe who played in 3 different positions on the day and was brilliant. The opposition gave POTM to Freya who was running the game at 10 until she went off injured in the second half.

A shout out to Ruby, the latest u18 to make her debut in senior rugby, and in some fashion. Having been absolutely hung out to dry by coach Ste asking her to ref the u14 girls game beforehand, she came on during the first half going on to score 4 tries (keeping Ste's streak of debut scorers alive) and had a very assured performance in her first senior appearance.

Lots of big things to come from this developing side yet.