Spirit shines through

BILLINGHAM LIONS V BLAYDON
Unavailability and a late cry off meant reorganisation of the Lions who took on a he Blaydon side at Campus field. Burgum returned to the fray at blind side while Chappy went to eight despite having to heavily strap his knee just to start. With a late back cry off Bragham got a baptism of fire with his Lions début at fly half. Dad was working so missed a good first performance from Josh who showed the quality of our youth development system. Bates got a run out on the wing and put in some real crunching tackles all game and channelled his aggression in the right direction. Blaydon were held and in fact looked vulnerable to our free running backs and soon realised that long kicks did not work with Ellliot returning them at speed. The double tackle system being used to stop their big centres meant a clash between centres Armstrong and Woodhouse. An elbow in the cheek saw Woody leave the field for treatment with a suspected cracked bone with only a quarter of of the game gone. Hamer and Widridge looked dominant despite playing against huge opposition battering them with bone crunching tackles. With fifteen minutes gone Armstrong slotted a difficult penalty to give us a slender lead. Watkins outwide was unlucky not to go all the way when a tap tackle just caught him . Blaydon took advantage of a superior weight advantage and went to the forward game and despite resolute defending and some great scrummaging from our front three of Cranson, Anderson and Wallace they managed to put on three unanswered tries by half time.
HALF TIME BILLINGHAM LIONS 3 V BLAYDON 17
Woodhouse had to come off and Keenan took over in the centre with Chappy finally having to give in to his knee injury being replaced by Davies who turned the clock back again and proved returning players still have a great deal to offer the game. Wallace was replaced by Angus who once again was good value putting in the effort despite still not being 100% after his bought of that horrible virus thing. With our first play of the half Sayers despite being put under pressure by their fringing back row kept a cool head when tackled and spun the ball to Bragham who put in a huge up and under perfectly placed behind the defending winger. Keenan raced through as the ball was fumbled and hacked through chasing his kick to score a try in the corner. Blaydon added a further two tries through their driving play and this saw Wallace return to the game to replace Anderson at hooker. Phil Raey who despite playing an hour with an old injury had to leave the field bringing Woodhouse on into the back row to partner Burgum and Davies. The visitors scored a further two unanswered tries to close out the game
FULL TIME BILLINGHAM LIONS 8 V BLAYDON 43
Scorers Try Keenan 1
Penalty Armstrong 1
Reporters comment: Given the opposition and the fact that we had so many players this was a good performance. The spirit and talent of the young players and the determination of those injured, ill or playing out of position was a credit to the club. The score possibly flattered the visitors and although they were a very well drilled outfit on another day with a fully fit side I think we could have ran them closer if not come away with the points.
Peter Evans only kicked three from four conversions proving he is therefore human