Candy Cup Semi Final

Morpeth Reivers 21 v Percy Park Lions 15

Lions demonstrate real potential on the ‘sheep paddock’!

First an apology…I had promised to get this article in print on Sunday afternoon…I failed miserably due to a raging hangover and a head that felt as if it was coming apart like a badly made helmet…the second apology…. to those players that were present in Lola Jeans, Tynemouth on Saturday night…trust me I am a better dancer than that!!....why the euphoria I hear you ask…well I was in good company but that’s not all as the day started really well… a youthful Lions team travelled to Mitford Road to take on a strong Morpeth second string and performed really well…despite the very difficult conditions and playing on a pitch which is affectionately known throughout Northumberland rugby as the ‘Sheep paddock’ (descriptive but sets the right picture)…our Lions put in a performance that demonstrated great promise, grit and a determination not to be beaten…they even got a little feisty at times…and in the doing gave an exciting glimpse of our future 1^st XV. There are many within this team who will grace the hallowed turf in the months and seasons ahead. On a better day and on a better pitch we would have won this game and so I left ‘the Peth’ in good spirits only to take that excitement into the evening and probably one or two steps too far…..but ‘hey ho’ when Park play well everything in the world looks a little bit better…so how did we play?

Percy Park Lions 61 - 0 Middlesborough Wasps

Candy League

The Lions put in their best display of the season on Saturday scoring 8 unanswered tries , 6 conversions and 3 penalties.
To be fair to the opposition they did not have the best preparation with lots of their team arriving just prior to kick off due to Tyne tunnel chaos.
But the Lions started with real intensity. Camping in the opponents 22 , smart skippering by Karl Thompson saw him select the posts three times in the early stages all duly converted by Andrew Walker plus a try  put us 16 0. with 25 minutes gone.

First half tries from Aaron Smith Karl Thompson and Dan Jackson saw us 28 0 up at half time . The 10,12,13 axis of Andrew, Richard Chadwick and Ollie Stephenson was causing all sorts of problems and letting our back three of Jamie Diamond ,Dan Jackson and Ruiri Embelton have a field day picking up 5 tries between themselves.
Great to see Brett Sylph back in black and white and he added a lot to our back row presence. Although the forwards were dominant in the line out and excellent at the breakdown,  we had a bit of a wobble in a couple of scrums but overcame that and a great platform was then provided.

All in all a fantastic team effort, great entertainment for the crowd and many individual performances will make senior selection very interesting this week.
Another tough one next week with Darlington Mowden Park at home. So if you are not travelling to Huddersfield get yourself down to watch .

River Blyth League

Percy Park Pumas 58 - 26 Gosforth Phoenix

A good contest where sportsmanship was the winner. Gosforth being on hard times arrived with only 9 players so Park duly agreed to lend them 5 and the game started 14 a side.

The delivery from Alun Barlow at 10, coupled with pace and power of Ross Young and Rhys Glover in the centre's saw Park run away with it in the first half scoring 7 unanswered tries making it 41 - 0 at half time.

To even things up all five of our loaned players swapped over for the second half. The 10,12 and 13 who had been so destructive switched to Gosforth colours and it was game on. Two early tries caught Pack napping but they steadied the ship, keeping the ball in hand and grinding out the yards .

A nip and tuck second half ended 4 tries to 3 in Gosforth's favour with the overall final score being  58 - 26. 

Great to see Harry Moorhead and Rhys Glover getting there boots back on after several years, we hope to see a lot more of them going forward. Next game South Shields Mariners on 16th November.