Barnard Castle 1st XV Match report
Barnard Castle 1st XV Match report
Barnard Castle 48 Hartlepool 12
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Barnie came roaring back after their disappointing defeat over at Guisborough the previous Saturday when they systematically dismantled a Hartlepool side that at the beginning of the game were just above them in the league. The convincing win takes them up to fourth in the table.
The first chink in the visitor’s armour came after only ten minutes when a speculative kick up into the Castle half was fielded by winger Paul Fenwick who gathered and sped down the left wing before passing out of tackle to team-mate Craig Dominick who made the final yards. Hartlepool exerted some pressure of their own soon after and the referee failed to spot that the ball had come straight out of the scrum close to the Castle line and their flanker gratefully gathered and crashed over.
Barnie re-exerted their authority within minutes though and as Hartlepool infringed at the breakdown, Kirk Thompson put over a penalty and then fullback Steve McCracken broke through a gap and went over. Fenwick then scored not long after the restart, cruising effortlessly through floundering defenders on another mazy run from within his own half. Another one was soon to follow to leave the half-time score a convincing 29-7 lead.
In the second half, Fenwick went over yet again and then Craig Dominick grabbed his second, driving through tackles and going over under the posts. Although Hartlepool grabbed a consolation try close to the final whistle, by then Kirk Thompson had gone over for his first try of the season to leave Barnie out of sight. It was good to see Ian Spence have his first outing for the first team side and had a couple of excellent runs during the course of the game. Eggs Clement also put in another outstanding performance.
This Saturday, they entertain Blyth in a cup game down on the Demesnes.