Percy Park 25 - 5 Ponteland
Although the Ist XV contest was not a classic for the spectator, Park can boast the treble over Ponteland, as all three sides on the day, the firsts, Lions and Marauders all won.
Percy Park Ist XV had high hopes of consolidating their league position with a win against Pont, who previously had won only 2 league games. The home side drew first blood so to speak, when Giles Tipsword crashed over for the opening Park try after sustained pressure in the visitors 22. Although Morse missed the conversion, he was accurate with a penalty attempt soon after, to take the score to 8 - 0.
After 20 minutes prop George Purdy finished off a rolling maul, despite the Pont protestations of 'truck and trailer', and with the conversion Park led 15 - 0.
From the restart, skipper Greg Dixon retrieved the ball and set off up field, and with several offloads in the tackle, the ball was eventually passed to Liam Casey who raced for the line to score under the posts. With the successful conversion by fly half Phil Morse, Park had scored at a rate of a point a minute, and led Pont 22 - 0.
The game then became somewhat fractious, with several exchanges between players from both sides off the ball, and on 26 minutes Giles Tipsword was sent to the bin for a retaliatory punch in an attempt to extract himself from a head lock. From this point onwards the game degenerated, and it wasn't until 10 minutes from time that the next score came, this time for Ponteland when centre Peter Lewington scored wide out after coming in on the angle to cut through the Park defence.
Graeme Turnbull couldn't add the extras, and after a brief excursion into the vistor's 22 Park were awarded a penalty which Morse took to stretch the Park lead to 25 - 5 which was how the game finished.
During the game, Park had 3 players sin binned and did well not to concede more points whilst numerically disadvantaged. Hats off though, to the wily old Pont war horses in the pack who used their experience to manage and to a degree direct the game and knock Park off their stride, and keep the score down, when at one point it could have turned into a rout.
At Ponteland, Park Lions won 47 - 12 with a brace of tries from veteran Mark Carr and at Preston Avenue, the Marauders beat Ponteland Pythons, 29 - 10.