Park who were made to work hard for the win could have earned a four try bonus point at the end, but Sheffield held out and earned themselves a losing bonus point in the process. The early exchanges were largely in favour of the blue and whites, who had much of the possession in the first quarter, but on the 20 minute mark, Marcus Rutter had a chance to draw first blood with penalty but the attempt went wide.

Percy Park were without lock Michael Langlands who had succumbed to a virus which has affected several of the squad in recent weeks. James Ponton came in at second row, and Jonny Dubois came up from the Lions to the bench as front row replacement.

It took a full 30 minutes before the scorers were troubled when Sheffield opened their account with a try by Joe Cribley after some uncharacteristic sloppy tackling allowed the centre through to cross the line. Cribley took his own conversion and the visitors led 7 – 0.

The score sparked Park into action and they responded almost immediately with a try by Phil Morse. From the kick off Park attacked the ball but there was a knock on from which referee David Conway on exchange from the Oxford Referees Society played advantage. Sheffield reclaimed the ball and kicked to touch and with advantage over, the ball came back into play on the wind with Ash Smith running hard at the visitor’s defensive line. The ball was spun wide and found Phil Morse in the line, who showed to pass on the outside which opened up a gap for him to race through for the try. Marcus Rutter converted to level the scores.

MALTON & NORTON 8 – 10 PERCY PARK

This was the first time Percy Park’s 1^st XV had played at Malton & Norton even though it is only an hour and 45 minutes down the road. Malton are the new boys to the North 1 East league having been champions of Yorkshire 1 last season, and have had a mixed season so far, going well until last week’s slip up at Old Crossleyans . Park were looking to carry on the form from last week’s emphatic win against Team Northumbria, although they had to contend with a couple of late changes to the side with Simon Greatham being unavailable due to illness and Zak Appleby Rutter being unable to travel. This allowed Ash Smith to move back into his favoured position at outside centre, and Thomas Turnbull moved to the wing with a late call up and 1^st XV debut for Jonny Ward who started on the bench.

PERCY PARK 67 – 15 TEAM NORTHUMBRIA 

Team Northumbria were given a lesson in forward play as the Park pack dominated the game to give the home side a convincing 67 – 15 win and inflicted the heaviest defeat on the fledgling club in their short league history so far.

Although the conditions were bright and good underfoot, the strong cross wind caused the kickers some problems. Northumbria turned up with a totally changed squad from the season before, which is in part their main problem, that coupled with trying to maintain their BUSA league status in mid-week games. At 31 Greg Dixon for the home side was the oldest player in the starting line-up for either team, and the veteran of 21 seasons at Park, man and boy, turned in a man of the match performance notching 4 tries in the process.

MIDDLESBROUGH 20 – 20 PERCY PARK

The last time Percy Park visited Acklam Park was in the season which saw the home side promoted to North 1 and Park relegated to Durham & Northumberland 1. The aggregate score that season was 125 – 7 to the side in claret and gold, but in the intervening 5 years both sides’ fortunes have changed and they find themselves once again in the same league. So far this season Boro have lost only to league leaders Billingham, and Park have yet to find the form that took them to the play offs earlier in the year. Conditions were near perfect for a game of rugby, a bright sunny day with a breeze and an immaculate pitch with the home side kicking off with the slight slope and wind at their backs.

Both packs had a chance to test themselves in the first 2 minutes and Park showed that it was going to be a tough day for the home pack when they drove them back convincingly in the first scrummage. Boro however had the first chance to score points when Park were penalised for being offside and they elected to kick for goal. Scrum half Peter Wright would no doubt wish to forget his first attempt at goal which missed by some distance, but he made amends 3 minutes later with another penalty opportunity.

Percy Park had a chance to level the scores not long after but chose to kick to the corner. The resulting lineout was a scrappy affair which resulted in a 5 metre scrum and Middlesbrough cleared their lines. Park had a couple of chances to go in front one of which saw Sean Williamson being bundled into touch close to the line.

On 20 minutes a fracas broke out involving several players from both sides. When the dust settled, referee Richard Downing sent both blind side flankers to the sin bin and awarded Middlesbrough a penalty in a kickable position, which Wright missed. Both teams played for the next 16 minutes with 14 players as it seemed the referee had forgotten about the two in the bin, as had everyone else.