PERCY PARK 17 - 31 SUNDERLAND

 

It was shirt sleeve order at Preston Avenue, with no wind to speak of, and weather that was more fitting to a June afternoon rather than the first week of October. Park hoped to continue the battling form of last weekend, but instead slumped to a second successive defeat this time at the hands of Sunderland.

This was the proverbial game of two halves, and Park so nearly nicked it at the end. Fielding much the same side as last week Park opted to keep Thomas Turnbull at scrum half, with Liam Casey coming in on the wing for the unavailable Paul Love and Mark Clarkson starting on the other wing.

Park were looking to bounce back after a disappointing defeat last week away to Alnwick, but had a few selection problems with injuries and several key players being away for a stag weekend in Belfast.

ASHINGTON 17 – 20 PERCY PARK

With the runners up spot already in the bag, along with a home tie for the play off game against Bridlington next week, Park elected to rest some of the regular 1^st XV players, following the punishing fixture back log. That’s not to take anything away from Ashington, who battled away, and could have won this game following a strong second half showing.

The visitors started well and Liam Blackburn was on the score sheet again after only two minutes, when a chip through by fly half Ash Smith was retrieved by the winger, who, with a little juggling, managed to hold onto the ball and go over the line for a try which was unconverted.

With six minutes gone Ash Smith scored under the posts with a fine individual effort side stepping and breaking through several tackles before going over to give Marcus Rutter the easy conversion, and Park led by 12 points to nil.

Both fly halves had penalty chances which missed, but when Michael Langlands was harshly punished for handling in a ruck when on his feet over an Ashington player who hadn’t released the ball, it seemed as though James Philips would cut the deficit for the home side. Justice prevailed and the kick went wide.

 

With only a minute of playing time left in the first half Sam Walton powered over the try line to score after a driving maul from a line out on the Ashington 5 metre line. Marcus Rutter was off target, but the visitors had a comfortable lead going into the break.