Seaham – 12 Whitby – 22

Whitby made the voyage to Seaham this week with a few changes to last weeks team due to injuries and work commitments, but some back up from the second team was a very welcome boost for this must win game. As standard Whitby started off sluggish but they managed to get there heads together before Seaham could score any points, Seaham were applying a lot of good pressure and kept Whitby pinned in their own half for the first 20 minutes of the game. A blessed break away from Whitby saw the rapid winger guy sprint down the wing to go over the line for a score which Whitby did not deserve.

Again Seaham applied the pressure and with some burly runs from the centres and some worthy support saw them go over under the posts. Whitby were struggling in the scrums but were still managing to win their own ball and from a rare scrum which pushed forward the ball came back swiftly and got into Allen’s hands who gave a pop pass to Straker to make a cavity in the Seaham defence, the forwards got there quickly and secured the ball and Tim Richardson eventually went over the line to score.

The second half started pretty much the same as the first with Seaham’s centres puncturing the Whitby’s defence, but with some excellent tackling from Andrew Watson kept them at bay. Whitby then decided to slow the ball down by keeping the ball in hands and working in phases to gain yards up the pitch, with James Gildroy, Shane Young and prop Matt working tirelessly to secure the ball, eventually after many phases of play the ball went to captain Roberts hands and he managed to out sprint the winger to score. From a mix up the ball went loose and the Seahm players reacted faster than Whitby, they managed to hack the ball forward an put it down over the line, it was to be an edgy end to the game as Seaham were functioning well.

Whitby’s tight game was frustrating Seaham and it was only a matter of time before they got penalised and the responsibility came down to Steve Allen to kick the ball for that extra 3 point cushion that Whitby needed. The rest of the half was pretty even with Seaham’s runners equalled out by Whitby’s firm forward play, and Whitby were delighted to hear the final whistle after a hard fought battle a long way from home. A Mediocre performance this week could have been a lot better, many thanks to Alan Knaggs, Chris Riddols and Matt from the second team to reinforce the side.