Percy Park travelled to McCracken Park on Saturday to kick off the season with a training game with Northern from Durham & Northumberland 1.
Both sides were without key players who were unavailable due to bank holiday weekend family commitments or injury, but the players who did turn out acquitted themselves well.
The game was played in four quarters and was a keenly contested affair with the sides evenly matched, and both sides having a similar amount of possession. Park edged the line out and Northern managed to disrupt the scrumage.
After 40 minutes there was still no score but this was not a dull game with both sides trying to bring training ground moves to a match situation. It was Northern who broke the deadlock with a series of catch and drives at the Park line and eventually the forwards managed to cross the white wash for the first 5 points.
Park responded soon after in the same quarter with a well worked try started off by debutant Liam Blackburn on the left wing. Liam made a break from his own half and was stopped by the Northern defence, but the ball was recycled and passed through several pairs of hands with David Griffiths making the crucial break feeding Thomas Turnbull on the right wing who drew the last man and popped the ball to Sam Walton in support to run in a try which was unconverted.
The visitors had thought they had taken the lead soon after when a break down the right wing and a chip by David Griffiths and chase by Nick Vickers crossed the Northern line. Vickers appeared to get the touch down but referee Will Halford adjudged him to be offside and the scores remained level.
In the dying minutes of the game the home side battered the Park defence but the visitor's held out and with the last kick of the game.An attempted penalty went just wide.
This was a useful run out for all concerned, and there were notable performances by Jimmy Baldwin at scrum half and Liam Blackburn whose crunching try saving tackle on the Northern number 8 in the final quarter, was talked about in the bar long after the game had finished