Weekend Review - 17th October 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 1:20:56 PM
1st VX
HORDEN made it fantastic five wins in a row thanks to an eventful Durham Northumberland One clash with Redcar.
Horden ran in five tries at Welfare Park while there were five sin-bins – one for the hosts and four for Redcar.
Wayne McDowell and Glenn Bowman's side produced some good rugby, especially in the opening half an hour before the spate of sin-bins and stoppages affected the quality of the game.
Craig Jones kicked Horden ahead with a 10th-minute penalty and from Redcar's re-start, the home side scored a brilliant try. Craig Gilmour collected on his own 22 before making an excellent 30-metre break. He off-loaded to forward colleague Rob Hebron and the ball travelled through several pairs of hands before try-machine Darren Witte finished off the move.
Five minutes later, Horden scored again after Jones kicked a penalty award to the corner. Owen Bennett collected the line-out throw-in from Richie Thirkell and Gilmour received to crash over from five metres.
Redcar pulled a try back but this jolted Horden back into action and David Heckles – playing superbly at stand-off – found Andrew Turner with a good flat pass and the centre went through a gap for the third home try.
Horden were not finished and on the half-hour added try number four. David Mason kicked deep, took off after the ball and after receiving a kind bounce, gathered it up and ran in from 30 metres, handing off the last Redcar defender en-route.
With Jones adding three first-half conversions to a single Redcar penalty, the colliery side led 29-8.
The match unfortunately then became quite feisty and after a high tackle led to a spot of "handbags", Redcar had two players sin-binned.
Horden almost added a special try late in the first period when Heckles played a long crossfield kick and prop Paul James, of all people, found himself on the wing, but the powerful forward was brought down just short.
Jones added a penalty after the break but the second half was something of a non-event with three more sin-bins and frequent stoppages.
Horden did score a fifth try, Turner notching his second of the afternoon, with Jones converting.
Redcar did gain a consolation try 10 minutes from time but Horden were comfortable winners.