Durham & Northumberland Div 3

Whitby Maroons 33
Hartlepool BBOB 7

The Maroons entertained a large crowd on Saturday, playing expansive rugby in wet and very windy conditions on the showfield. Maroons nearly at full strength missing captain Quinn, Prop Lonsdale and injured Shane Young called in Kevin Purvis and veteran Alan Knaggs came into the squad. After a good warm up the maroons side led by Skipper Straker were raring to go and early pressure nearly paid off. Steve Allen spurned an early opportunity by missing a penalty into a strong wind. But later on Richard Harrison crashed through 4 men to open the scoring with a try out wide.

The Boys Brigade side had indicated to the referee that they had a weak front row and the the referee told the Maroons front row to take it easy on them but this wasn't the case when half way through the half. The Hartlepool side opted to scrum from a penalty and this is when the Maroons really got going. The half time score was 5-0.

The second half a change in personnel in the scrum to dominate even more. Alan Knaggs was replaced by Kev Purvis and John Harrison moving into the front row. The second half the Whitby side great fitness and pressed down field from the kick off with Dave Straker smashing through the weak cover defence to score under the posts. Alittle later Straker added another from a set move with Allen landing both conversions. Hartlepool manage to score when a high tackle was deemed to stop a try and a penalty try was awarded, but this was the only attack from a poor side. John Harrison scored from close range after good work from Parkin and Matt Russell. After another bout of pressure from a scrum let Phill Stentiford mop up a spillage to go over in the corner. Steve Allen had a great kicking game landing 4 conversions in tricky conditions. The Maroons are now in full stride but awaiting a few players to come back as they have never had a full strength team out yet this year. Mark Parkin, Dave Straker, Jock Harrison all shone through.

Whitby Gazette Man of the Match - Matt Russell - led from the front.
Match Sponsor - Duke of York.