Whitby v 3TM

November the 5th saw the 3tm Travelling over the moor road to whitby for a clash against an unknown team as this is their 1st season in the Social League. Reports on their performances from previous matches suggested this would be a game well within the capabilities of a win for the Billingham 3rd XV who so far remain unbeaten this season.
Billingham won the toss and chose to kick hoping the hard tackling would make a fast impression on a whitby team who had a vary varied mix of youth and experience. The decision was proven to be the right one, after a scrappy couple of minutes the ball made its way to the right wing with the Billingham player being unfortunae to just be caught and knocked into touch around half way, a wayward throw from the home team hooker gave possesion back to Billingham and some quick ball through hands found a ruck being formed within their 22, again some quick ball and it was left to Peter Childs to force his way through and over from 5 metres, unfortunately a gusty wind saw the conversion pulled wide.
Whether it had been a slow start from whitby or the early score making Billingham complacent things soon changed from the restart, the next 20 minutes saw the home team camped in our half for long periods with only strong defense keeping them out, especially with Hall , Sudron and Childs making a nuisance of themselves at the breakdown. Eventually though the pressure told and their centre found himself running a line back in, wrongfooting the defense and breaking a tackle to score under the posts which was duly converted to give the home team the lead.
This sparked the 3TM back into life and the back line eventually found its way into a game which so far had been dominated by forward play, numerous phases saw us gaining ground as the first period was starting to run out. A penalty inside the 22 and bang infront of the posts had the sidelines screaming to take the kick and go in with the lead, However Sudron had noticed an overlap to the left and spun the ball wide, agin it went through a couple of hands before Neil Dixon dove over in the corner to re-gain the lead but the conversion again missed, unfortunately Dixon was injured and had to be replaced by Steve Simpson.
Billingham now had the bit between their teeth and almost a carbon copy move found Simpson being stopped just short and that brought an end to the 1st half.
Half Time Whitby 7-10 Billingham
Substitutions at half time saw Phil Kelsey Replacing Dale Thompson in the front row amongst others.
The 2nd half seemed to be starting with a more assured Bill performance as the late score seemed to have given the confidence for the ball to be shipped through hands, although a lot of the time it seemed the play was going much more sideways than forwards resulting in the wingers running out of space by the time it had reached them.
15 minutes in and the ball was wide on the right and a weaving run from Daniel Sanderson found him being stopped illegally just short of the 22, the tackle had also injured Sandersons thumb which was bad luck to say the least as this was his first game back after a broken wrist and he had been outstanding in the first period, both with tackling in defense and electric pace going forward, Richard Morrison coming on as a replacement wide on the right. The resulting penalty saw the power the Billingham forwards possess when in full flow, 1st with Phill Hall battering his way through to make good ground followed by Phil Kelsey doing exactly the same, sucking the whitby defense in, this had caused space to the right of the posts which was again spotted by Sudron who threw out quick ball and it made its way to Connor Shea to slide over, this time the conversion was slotted between the posts by Ben Elgie.
It wasn't long before the lead was extended further as again Sudron had noticed exra players for Billingham wide to the left as Elgie had come up from full back, he took the ball over the line wide to finish but failed to convert.
With Billingham now 15 points to the good and only around 10 minutes left on the clock this signalled the time for the visitors to take their foot off the gas and a wayward pass back into our own 22 saw the ball going to ground with a pacy whitby back winning the foot race, kicking on and then diving on the ball over the line for the final score of the game.
Final score Witby 12 - 22 Billingham
Overall it was a game which we played well in patches against good and under rated opponents who by all accounts had seened to have bolster their squad from previous matches, the talk after the game turned to how this always seems to be the case when teams play us. The reason is simple, everyone in the league knows we haven't lost for a season and a half, we are the team to take down and they will do what they can to be the team to do it. How do we respond? Simple, we play like we can, dont become complacent and give 110% then the fun starts in the bar after. 2 difficult weeks coming up with Guisborough away who have only lost 2 followed by West Hartlepool Bucks in the 3rd team cup, lets see if we can continue the run,
Man of the Match - Phil Hall