Rugby
Durham/Northumberland 1
Barnard Castle………… 35
Hartlepool Rovers……. 25
CASTLE played host to a Rovers side just above them on points difference and ultimately came out well on top, courtesy of a strong performance by the forwards and poor discipline by the visitors.
In a strong cross wind, it was not until half an hour had been played before the scoreboard was troubled – Rovers kicking a penalty goal to lead 0-3.
However, Castle were soon back in the Rovers half and from a penalty Sam Errington found touch near goal. The subsequent catch and drive was held up but Rob Stanwix picked from the base and drove over.
Although flyhalf Errington missed the conversion, soon after Rovers transgressed and were penalised not only with a yellow card but also with three points as Errington put over the penalty kick.
From the restart, the Barney forwards passed the ball around beautifully as they surged back down the pitch, Callum Burke in particular stretching his legs and the whole adventure ending in triumph when flanker Joe Larder received a scoring pass to ease Barney further ahead 13-3.
Despite Rovers receiving a further yellow card for some skulduggery after Larder had touched down, Rovers did get a penalty over before the break to trail only 13-6.
The second half started with a rerun of Castle’s first try with Stanwix again the man to force his way through after the lineout drive.
Rovers then found a way through a leaky Castle defence to keep the score to 20-13.
Following another successful Errington penalty, Castle performed their lineout drive tactic, this time Liam Riley the man on the end of the train for the bonus-point try.
With Errington’s conversion, Barney were 30-13 up and seemingly out of sight. Not so. Rovers would not lie down and Castle seemed to switch off as the visitors scored two tries and suddenly it was all to play for at 30-25.
Barney dug deep in the last minutes though and it was no surprise to find man-of-the-match Rob Stanwix was once more tail-end Charlie on the back of a lineout drive to secure his hat-trick.
Castle will need to tighten up their defence if they are not to come undone in future games. This was a match they should have won comfortably but all too often they switched off and let the opposition back into the match.
This coming Saturday sees the sternest test of the season as they travel to table-topping Northern. They need to find a higher level if they are to come away with some points from the game.
Hartlepool Rovers II…. 20
Barnard Castle II………. 29
BARBER’S second team babes are no longer the fledglings they once were and the maturity of the young players is starting to show in the team’s results.
Bolstered by one or two of the more mature set returning from injury or dropping down from first team duties, Castle travelled to third placed Rovers in the knowledge that it would be one of the more challenging fixtures of the season.
Without a specialist prop, Charles Garland stepped up and made a great job of it.
In fact the scrum as a whole despite being outweighed by the older Rovers pack, not only held their own but took ball against the head.
For all that the start was not a great one and with the kickoff not going ten and fluffing their early lineout, Rovers were soon battering on the door and found a gap to go 5-0 up.
The restart was much better and Castle got some front foot ball and were awarded a scrum. Nick Moore expertly picked up and fed scrumhalf Dan Swires who drew the defence before unleashing fullback Adam Kicks for a textbook equalising score.
The next ten minutes saw the game see-saw up and down the middle of the pitch with good defence from both sides.
At one point Swires broke loose and looked to be heading for the corner until a great try saving tackle pulled him into touch.
The next try was Castle’s and was testament to the improved attacking prowess of young flanker Jack Tobbell who poached loose ball that squirted out of the side of a Rovers ruck and then showed great speed and agility to score.
The conversion made it 12-5 to Barney.
Rovers are a fine, mature unit and were soon battering back at Castle and hit back to even up the score.
Almost from the restart though Jack Clarke made a half break and fed supporting Lewis Wigham who showed a surprising turn of pace and made a good 30 metres downfield.
Rovers infringed in the tackle and Steve Holloway potted the penalty to give Barney the edge again 12-15. Rovers hit back with try on the half hour to snatch the lead back, 17-15 but it was Castle, right on the half time whistle who scored again.
Clarke was once more the architect with a midfield burst before lock Alex Thomas carried the move on and then fed a lovely pass to winger Tom Steen coming infield to support the ball carrier and showing his pace to round the fullback giving Castle a slender 17-22 lead at the break.
With the wind at their backs, Rovers started well and got a penalty goal to close to 20-22.
Barney were forced to make changes as Alex Thomas and then Nick Moore left the field with injuries. Backs Bartlett and Butlin made an effective stand-in backrow pairing.
Zach Jones showed some fresh confidence from fullback and broke out of defence and after a great strip of the ball by Bartlett, Kicks was able to break upfield and provide a scoring pass to Jones whose mazy run took him inside the fullback. Holloway added another conversion and Castle had managed to get more than a score ahead at 20-29.
In truth the last 20 minutes belonged to Rovers and the Castle defence was magnificent.
Rovers felt themselves unlucky not to be awarded a try in the corner although prop Richard Welsby confirmed the ball was not grounded.
More defence was needed though and Johnny Bartlett made a huge try-saving tackle late on to leave Rovers without a try in the second half at the final whistle.
Man-of-the-match was Jack Tobbell for his all-round industry but strong candidates were his backrow colleagues Cameron Young, who was a colossus in the lineout, and Nick Moore, who carried well until his injury in the second half.
The seconds face Mowden this coming Saturday and hope they will be able to perform as well again.
Dave Bottoms
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
