Up till Saturday Wensleydale had not been able to field a side to travel so there was some curiosity as to what sort of side they could put out. Unfortunately for the Heughers it was a pretty decent one with lots of student age, athletic players. And having looked at our large pack Wensleydale declared that they would have to go to uncontested scrums from the start as 'they did not have enough experience in the front row'. Though from their posted selections it looks like at least one has been playing Yorkshire One regularly for their first team.

Anyway the game developed into a contest of Wensleydale looking to keep the ball alive and spreading play while Rovers adopted a more direct Route One strategy. And it was Wensleydale who were the more successful with the majority of their tries scored out wide after they had stretched our defence. Rovers did get 3 tries by running through the defence with Davy Carroll getting 2 and captain Ste Railton scoring the other.

Congratulations to Wensleydale. They were the better team and deserved the win. Though the uncontested scrums somewhat left a feeling of dissatisfaction. That also meant that our regular front row got less time than usual as we looked to put more, ahem, mobile players on the pitch. This led to some unusual placements such as Dicky Flounders at prop, Matty Stevo in the back row and Dazz Fawcett somewhere else in the pack and throwing in at the lineout. We did welcome to Sam Charlton to the team after joining us from Old Boys and he showed he will be a useful addition with some powerful runs from number 8. We also had Paul Arnell making his seasonal debut and adding yet more guile and experience to our back line.

And finally no thanks at all to Hartlepool Borough Council who failed to open up our pre- booked KGV changing rooms leading to both teams getting changed at the side of the pitch and traipsing back to the club to shower. Town's getting worserer.

SQUAD
K Wright
L Widdowfield
M Lamb
C Railton
S Railton (c)
S Vincent
R Flounders
N Harrison
D Fawcett
P Arnell
D Arnell
M Stevo
A Palmer
J Evans
D Carroll
L Powell
J Wintersgill
J Cairms
Irish Ethan
S Charlton
M Ellis
S Groom

Next weekend we do not have a scheduled match and are looking for a game. Possibly even on the Friday night