Rugby
Barnard Castle..........................29
Seaham.........................................14
Barney hosted old friends Seaham on a miserable, wet afternoon when the relentless rain became progressively worse.
With three props unavailable Castle’s front-row had a different appearance, as James Peareth and Charles Garland stepped into the breach from their usual positions in the second row and number 8.
Barney were quick off the mark as they pressured the Seaham defence. A poor clearance kick went straight to young Harry Parker and he ran in unopposed for the try. With the difficult conversion missed Barney led, 5-0.
Barney were enjoying the lions-share of possession, but the slippery ball was proving difficult to handle. Pressure was eventually rewarded when, following a maul close to the Seaham line, Ben Parker was able to drive over for the score. With Ralph Makepeace landing the difficult conversion, the lead grew to 12-0.
As half time approached a spilt ball in the Seaham half was hacked forward and Jack Worley won the race to touch down to give Castle a 17-0 lead at the break.
With the benefit of the slope, Seaham began to make their advantage at the scrum tell, but Barney’s defence was effective and they held the ball up over the line and cleared their lines from the resulting drop-out.
Eventually, Seaham’s early second half pressure brought reward, driving over for a try from an attacking scrum on the Barney 22-metre line, 17-7.
With player/coach Sam Errington pulling the strings, Castle were quick to regain the initiative as a well-placed chip over the Seaham defence found Luke Cowley to run in unopposed for a try and the bonus-point, 22-7.
Seaham’s scrum dominance continued and resulted in a series of penalties and a yellow-card for a Barney player and Seaham were able to capitalise with the converted try to take the score to 22-14. Barney also lost influential forward Henry Thompson with a nasty cut to his hand.
With time running out young Sam Fairbairn came on in the front row for a first team home debut and as the clock ticked down towards full-time, Barney enjoyed their best scrummage of the day, driving Seaham over their try-line to enable skipper Sam Bell to claim the try. With the successful conversion Barney ended the game soaking wet, but happy with at 29-14.
The opposition named Sam Errington as man of the match. The club are grateful to Jon Raper for his match sponsorship and also to team manager, Mally Kicks, in his last game in charge.
Barney travel to Sedgefield on March 16 and are at home on March 23 against Houghton.
Nick Raper
Barnard Castle II..........................24
Richmond I...................................50
Castle seconds hosted Richmond firsts in a friendly with the visitors using the opportunity to boost what’s been a tough season for them after rejoining the league.
An early warm up pre-game reaped reward when they surged to an early 19-0 lead. The home side got back into the match with multiple attacking runs and won rucks but failed to capitalise on chances.
One sliced clearance allowed Alphie Franks to field the ball at half way and Ethan Sedgewick showed his amazing speed to run 30yd untouched for a deserved try.
The second half kicked off and put Richmond under pressure building up to Chris Benn charging over for his first senior try with a perfectly timed run.
Barney were in control and the forwards were back to hard runs, allowing the backline to use quick hands, resulting in Chris scoring his second try.
Richmond got back into the game with another two tries against the run of play, but Barney weren’t letting them have the final say and more beautiful rugby allowed man-of-the-match colossus Johnny Bartlett to force himself over the line for a deserved try.
At the final whistle it had been a very good attacking game of rugby from both teams despite the quagmire of a pitch. Castle’s managers gathered the lads for the post match debrief and had nothing but praise for the lads who accounted themselves well.
Aside from Chris Benn, players of note were George Ford and Johnny Bartlett, North and Steen for sharing the No 9 duties, Des for leading like a true captain, and Luke Collings for playing the full 80 despite sustaining an injury.
Paul Davis
