Rugby
Barnard Castle……………….. 3
Horden & Peterlee…………. 39
Once again Barney were without a few injured and unavailable regulars as they took to the field. The opposition were Horden and Peterlee, who had been newly relegated from the league above.
Traditionally, Horden have tended to be reliant on a heavyweight pack to drive them forward, but they soon demonstrated they have added some excellent young backs into the mix, delivering an impressive all-round performance.
The visitors fired a warning shot during the early exchanges, when slick handling saw their speedy left-winger making good yards.
An infringement by Castle gave Horden the opportunity to slot an early penalty for a 0-3 lead. They soon doubled their advantage with another well-taken penalty kick.
The visitors’ opening try followed shortly afterwards when a deft chip through by their fly-half saw the ball cleanly gathered and touched down in the top left-hand corner. With the difficult conversion added,Horden moved into a 0-13 lead.
Castle came to life as the half time interval approached, but promising moves had the habit of breaking down through mistimed passes and poor handling.
Finally, a promising chip-through by Rees Doyle resulted in a trip, a yellow card and a penalty to Castle, which James Barber converted to take the score to 3-13.
Another promising move by Barney, initiated by Sam Watson, once again broke down as once again the final pass went astray.
On the stroke of half-time, however, Horden extended their lead with an excellent try to go into the break with a 3-18 lead.
Barney began the second half brightly, but another excellent kick by the Horden fly-half resulted in a 50/22 and gave them the advantage at the lineout.
The ensuing catch and drive saw Horden rumble towards the Castle line, before they offloaded to their backs to run-in the try. The conversion saw Horden’s lead extend to 3-25.
By now the visitors were playing with real fluidity and confidence and then a yellow card saw Barney reduced to 14 players for ten minutes, during which time Horden added to their tally of tries, which were duly converted to leave the final score at 3-39 to the visitors.
This was probably Castle’s poorest display of the season, but taking nothing away from Horden who, most Barney spectators felt, were the most impressive opponents to visit the Demesnes so far this season.
Barney’s man of the match was flanker Ben Parker who again delivered an impressive and combative performance. Thanks go to match sponsor Percy World Ltd.
Next week Barney travel to Seaham and will hope to have players back from injury to help their cause.
Nick Raper
