Mowden Park Visit Greenwood

Billingham 3TM V Mowden Park
We always knew it would be a hard day at the office today with Guz and Woody unavailable but Parsons returning and a bench of Richard (I’m not called Michael) Morrison and Young Gosney playing his first ever competitive, in fact first ever game on a full pitch. Team manager Richard Morrison had negotiated he release of Jonny Rumi to play ten and this added to the tactical play of the side who have lost Donaldson for a few games. This combined with more handling in the centres saw Sando and Robison at least saw some ball out wide although Robinson was given little space from a very experienced opposite number. Park turned up with a full side and a ten man bench of very experienced players. Mowden went ahead after six minutes after sustained pressure in the backs. Not to be outdone Watson ripped the ball from a ruck and set off on a trademark run drawing their defence in. A well timed pass to Sixsmith saw him go over to score out wide and level the scores. Billingham dug in and defended well despite some flowing rugby from Darlo but with a quarter of the game gone they added to their score with a converted try after a couple of missed tackles. On the half hour Shea left the field limping with an injury he had carried from a previous game bringing man of the match Gosney on. Surtees (the back row one) was struggling as he had lost his contact lenses but still managed with Kelsey to put themselves around making tackles across the park. The pack which had dominated the bigger Mowden forwards all game had to reshuffle with team Captain Kelsey dropping in to centre and once again performing well. 3TM held out with some excellent work and Coggy making a try saving tackle with a head butt on their number eights knee (no damage to Coggy). Right on the stroke of half time the visitors crossed the line again with a well worked move and the missed conversion brought the half to a close.
Half Time Billingham 3TM 5 V Mowden Park 17
With Morrison having to leave Billingham were rduced to the bare fifteen and Park scored almost from the kick off as Blenkinsop had to leave the game with a damaged shoulder. This was followed almost immediately with Thompson having to go off, returning having emptied his bladder after three minutes of plays must earn D.O.T.D. Along with Watson and Surtees 3TM front row had dominated their opposite numbers and tanks go to Mowden’s Tom Ducker who agreed to be an honorary 3TM player with membership of that elite band to be revoked at the end of play. Mowden made replacement after replacement and the fresh legs were doing the damage as the home side tired. With three quarters of the game gone Surtees injured his shoulder and had to drop into the back row with Thompson (back from his call of nature) moving to hooker and Gosney partnering Parsons in the power house as Darlo added a converted try to their tally. Another two tries brought up the seventy minute mark and it looked like a fifty pointer. 3TM pride kicked in and tackle after tackle thumped Mowden back as Billingham refused to give an inch and the game closed with a sore which even the Mowden supporters said flattered them. Gray moving to eight carried well from the base of the scrum and took pressure off Child as he could not make his normal runs after damaging his knee in a tackle. Difficult for fifteen players to beat a strong squad like this and Mowden thirds should probably be playing in the Merit League to give them more of a challenge however with a bit more training and a full squad we could easily compete with this side. Well done boys.
Billingham 3TM 5 V Mowden Park 41

Scorers Tries Sixsmith 1 MOM Gosney