As good as Park were last week tactically, they were as bad this, with no apparent plan B, when the kicking game played into Old Crocs hands. Percy Park made a couple of changes with Simon Greatham coming into the centre for the unavailable Marcus Turner, and Tom Pollock in for Andy Dunn who was on the bench. Park started well with good possession in the first fifteen minutes, with three attempted drop goals missed and then Liam Blackburn couldn’t hold on to a pass from John Scott with the line at his mercy.
From the first scrum, the strength of the Crossleyans front five was apparent and the young Park front row was under pressure and was driven backwards. The home side had the first opportunity to put points on the board through scrum half Ed Cockcroft, but thankfully for Park, he missed the first of several attempts at goal from a penalty.
Marcus Rutter kicked three points when Old Crocs were penalised for holding on after 22 minutes, and then four minutes later, the home side hit back with a well run try which came from a scrum in the Park half. Straight hands with the fullback Chris Seymour coming into the line was all that was needed, as the normally sound Park defence was breached, 5 – 3. Cockroft missed the conversion, but made amends a couple of minutes later with a penalty.
On the half hour Park were rewarded for the tenacity of scrum half John Scott who charged down a clearance kick by his opposite number Cockcroft, and retrieved the ball to go over the line for a try, which Rutter couldn’t convert. The scores were now level at 8 – 8. Cockcroft then missed two kickable penalties, to regain the lead but then did so with a try from Jack Hammond as a good handling move was finished off by the centre following a long cut out pass by player coach and ex Leeds Tykes Chris Jones. With the conversion missed the home side went into the break 13 – 8 up.
The second half started badly for Park with a try for the Broomfield side only two minutes in when the visitors defence was asleep and centre Jack Hammond cut the midfield to score, and Cockcroft made the easy conversion to stretch the lead 20 – 8. Rutter and Cockroft then exchanged penalties, before Wheale for Crossleyans and Dunn for Park were sin binned, which put a bit of a dampener on Crocs for ten minutes.
Park persisted with long touch kick which held up in the lengthy grass, and the home side continued to counter attack keeping Park penned in their own half. The home pack had been totally dominant for much of the game, and eventually the Percy Park pack was reorganised with Andy Dunn coming on and Michael Langlands moved up from the second row to tight head prop. This seemed to steady the ship, but a momentary lapse allowed Wheale on his return to the pitch to take a scrum against the head and number eight Manny Riaz to pick up and charge for the line. The offload to Cockcroft allowed the young Crocs scrum half to score a try to make amends for his dodgy kicking display. Jones took over kicking duty, but couldn’t add to the score and the game ended with Old Crossleyans taking the points 28 – 11, to move up to third in the league.
Next week Park are back on the road and visit Halifax again this time to take on Old Brodleians, and will be looking for a better team performance if they are to take anything from the game.
At home Park Lions defeated Alnwick II 39 – 10, and the Pumas went down away to Alnwick III. Percy Park Marauders continued their total dominance of Northumberland League 3c with the 95 – 0 demolition of Alnwick IV.