North One East
Cleckheaton RUFC 47 v 14 Percy Park RFC
Park drop into the danger zone.
Constructing a match report for this game has been a ‘tad’ difficult with much finger drumming on the authors desk…in fact I gave up….. preferring to join Mrs Wordsmith in her relentless search for a summer ‘fly and flop’. As the cost for the getaway became more akin to a small counties GDP, I became further unsettled choosing to go for a lie down in a darkened room. And why was the recall so difficult…for the first 30 minutes we looked good and it was only a breakaway try that separated the two sides. For the remainder of the half we were…well I am not sure where we were other than on the wrong side of a 21 to nil score line. The second half was much like the end of the first, culminating in a 47-14 loss. The result looks awful….Yet there was many on our team who played their socks off…a Michael Langlands chase back followed by a similar effort from Aaron Smith and Seb Reece were three standout moments…two fine tries from Adam Hay and Jake Smith promised much..…even our scrummage did well taking two against…..and all those efforts were topped off by a real classy man of the match display from Ali Blair…and there it is…Percy Park are akin to rugby’s stage version of Jekyll and Hyde…we have great periods in games and then somehow we cannot hold it together and end up more Hyde than Jekyll….if you wish to end your peruse at this point I will not be offended…or you can suffer with me and continue.
The game commenced with a minutes silence for two respected members of our rugby community who passed away over the festive period. A week ago we learnt that Terry Owen-Smith of Alnwick and our league secretary for the last 12 years had left us, then mid-week we heard that a Pocklington player, Billy Hardy had collapsed and died after a gym session. He was aged 27 years old. Percy Park would like to send their condolences to both families.
Ash Smith got us away by kicking the ball straight into touch and we ‘lost’ the scrum. I guess the match omens weren’t good. A bit like a Roman Emperor looking at the entrails of a ram before a decisive battle and having to be told his elected beast had worms!!...not good….still support is ‘thick and thin’ and on occasions that’s how it goes. Both teams probed kicking behind looking for weaknesses. The scrum was going well with Park taking one against the head. 
Park even looked the more likely to score. A free ball put us right on the line. Unfortunately we were unable to turn our advantage into points.
Josh Hedley was receiving some rough treatment with one or two ground floor strikes aimed. As Park came out of their 22 a double hit on Hedley caused the player to lose the ball. Fortunately Cleckheaton knocked on. As the travelling faithful breathed a sigh of relief the strike at the scrummage went against and Cleckheaton went ‘one two’ with a fine interchange to score. With the conversion taken 7 nil to the hosts.
At this point ‘Cleck’ had their gander up, tying Park up in and around their 22. Ali Blair came to the fore and simply put… Cleck had no answer to the outside centre’s breaks. Blair caused consternation in their ranks and at this point turned the game from Park defending to Park attacking. We looked good and Cleckheaton were hanging on. Percy Park’s mobility was excellent and our back division were on top. Yet we could not turn territory into points. Where we had Blair, Cleckheaton had Joey Carley at 7 and Jack Seddon at 8. If they had a sniff they gathered the ball and were off making those hard yards turning Park around.
In halting Seddon, Park gave away a penalty for holding in the tackle, justified as Park struggled to get back into a defensive shape. With the kick just 5 metres over the half way line, Cleck fly half Dale Breakwell gave the ball an almighty hoof toward the Tynesiders goal. The ball struck the post and was gathered by Blair who strode off the length of the pitch attacking the home side’s posts. Cleck flew back and in the gathering in of Blair offended with cynical interference giving Ash Smith our own strike at goal. We looked good for the 3 until the ball swerved midair and….struck the posts…like I said it was those worms!!... From the resulting play out Seddon skipped several tackles to recycle the ball to centre Olly Depledge, who in turn broke several attempts to stop him as he run the length of the field to score under the posts. A try that was wildly celebrated by the home support, as they threw their caps in the air, acclaiming Depledge with the title ‘Mad as a pillock’. 14 nil to the home side.
Cleckheaton went through the gears and Park stuttered. Only a superb chase from Seb Reece prevented any further encroachment on the score. Yet his efforts were nullified as in clearing Park gave away the line out and failed to defend it. The tap down landing squarely in the arms of Tom Lillycrop who ran through the line to score. The attempt easily converted and into the half at 21 nil.
At the turnaround Josh Hedley came off looking like a rabbit with myxomatosis and was replaced by Gastro Eddie Saint.
The home side started confidently coming through the middle of a ‘ruck’ and releasing winger James Wilson who ran on the outside of Leo Caulfield to score in the corner. There was one or two after’s with Caulfield in the middle. Frustration was creeping in. The conversion was missed.26-0…and the game resumed with a penalty to Cleckheaton further punishing the away team.
Park held for a while before moving the ball downfield. A really good catch and drive had Cleckheaton struggling and offending in front of their line. The resulting free ball came to nought. Returning to the line out, hooker Adam Hay throw
long and followed his accurate arrow going over the line on the peel. A good try. Conversion taken 26-7.
The home side responded almost immediately. From the restart we never got out of our half, before a missed tackle allowed a home player to speed through with some ease. Converted 33-7.
From that restart Seddon appeared to run through several attempted tackles to score. From a Park perspective this one was horrible. Converted 40-7.
Suffering yet?
Cleckheaton were well on the front foot and enjoying themselves. Every kick, tackle, ruck and rip was going their way. We needed some positivity and that came from Chris McCabe who threw himself into the fray enabling Park to move the ball along the line with purpose. A smart inside pass from Ash Smith saw Jake Smith cross for a score. The conversion was taken. 40-14
We didn’t challenge for the restart...…in fact throughout the game we didn’t seem to challenge with purpose giving Cleckheaton the front foot. The game opened up and became physical with Jonny Dubois and Cleckheaton’s Ben Etchells carded for punching. At the ruck we didn’t have enough numbers …Cleckheaton always seemed to win that contest…and it was at the ruck the final score was taken. We went forward and presented back. A Cleckheaton player came through, picked up the undefended ball and ran over half the pitch to score. And yes it was converted …47-14.
As the game came to the close Cleckheaton could have extended their lead if not for Michael Langlands and Aaron Smith. Both players showing great heart in chasing back and making try saving tackles. Cleck were further reduced as Tom Lillycrop dragged Ali Blair about by the scuff of his shirt. With the additional number Chris McCabe was unlucky not to score as he was bundled over just before he received the pass!!.....and that just about summed our afternoon up.
Full time 47-14 and we move towards two massive home games against Scarborough and Kendal. With 5 league defeats on the bounce we have dropped into that third relegation spot. We need points and badly. We are good enough…and there are plenty of games to go……but we need that Preston Avenue Roar…Come on Park.
And onto the Legg paragraph. Representing Percy Park.
From 15…Chris McCabe, Leo Caulfield, Ali Blair, Seb Reece, Andrew Walker, Ash Smith and Andrew Dunn.
From 8…Michael Langlands, Jake Smith, Mark Barry, Josh Hedley, Karl Thompson, Marc Cook, Adam Hay and Jonny Dubois
Riding the pine: Aaron Smith, Joe Cassidy and Eddie Saint.
If you have reached this far I wish to end on a positive note….. our own Aaron Smith is hosting a mental health awareness night at Percy Park from 7:30 pm on Wednesday 08/01/20….all are welcome.