NORTH 1 EAST
PERCY PARK 5 - 23 ALNWICK
Once again the weather gods weren’t kind to either player or spectator as rain fell on a soggy pitch making for a miserable day unless you were an Alnwick supporter. The Greenfields side had won the earlier fixture at Alnwick and were looking to cement their fourth place in the league. Park were hoping to end run of losses to move well away from the relegation zone in this re-arranged game with the scheduled game on the 9th January being postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. In the end the visitors prevailed.
Alnwick had most of the early possession and first half territory and could consider themselves unlucky to be only 5 – 0 up at the break through an unconverted try by fly half Callum Burn. Park had Guy Pike sent to the sin bin on 18 minutes and defended well but eventually ran out of cover as Burn went over in the corner on 28 minutes.
Park had a long-range penalty chance to cut the deficit but Paul Spowart’s kick fell well short of the target.
In the second half the visitors doubled their lead when Will Smith crossed the line 2 minutes in, although again the conversion was wide of the mark.
Alnwick went further ahead with 2 Burn penalties and with only 10 minutes remaining were 16 – 0 up. Any chance of a come back or even a losing bonus point was snuffed out as full back Shell jinking his way through the Park defence after he retrieved a poor clearance kick. Burn kicked the conversion to go 23 – 0 up.
With 5 minutes remaining Park came back fighting and played their best spell of the game with Alnwick having 2 players sent to the sin bin for professional fouls trying to slow down Park ball. Michael Langlands powered his way over the line on 80 minutes for a consolation try.
Next week, Park host South Shields Westoe, who are currently propping up North 1 East.