Tynedale gained a well-deserved victory over Northern in the first round of the Northumberland Junior Shield cup competition. Despite having two late cry off's and Richard Cramb pulling a muscle while changing the Vets played a composed game in tricky conditions. The game kicked off on Northern's first team pitch and it was clear that some of the Northern players were more familiar with it than others and with a diagonal gale blowing into Tyne's left corner damage limitation was the plan of the first half however the Vets pack led by Graham Yates got the upper hand in the earlier exchanges and with support of the other two back row players Neil Murphy and Nigel Wright, putting in his best performance to date, any loose ball came Tyne's way. A half back pairing of Simon Clayton-Hibbott and Alan Moses seized every chance to run at the Northern line and short pop passes to the abrasive Rod Wallace broke the gain line on repeated occasions. After quick re-cycling outside centre Craig Johnson scorched away for the first try, skilfully converted by Hibbott from the touchline. This was quickly followed by a second score when full back Scott Ferguson ran back a wayward kick, linking with Richard Jones and supporting for the return pass to score under the posts, again Hibbott converting.
Northern woke up at this point and started to retain some possession but the Tynedale defence harried the opposition into errors. This led to a scrappy period and a number of penalties with Northern making the most use and bringing the score to 14-3 and quickly taking play back to the Vets try line. A series of 5 metre scrums were held however the referee spotted a technical infringement in the Tynedale front row and awarded a dubious penalty try, duly converted to bring the half time score to 14-10.
Ian Charlton replaced Murphy in the back row and was soon in the trenches with hooker Richard Parker mixing it with a lot of "returning from injury" Northern first team players. The game resumed to a more familiar pattern and Moses played a tactical game with accurate kicks to the corners. The scrums were steadied after props Charlie Murray and Angus Whitelaw switched sides and from one such scrum a pick up by Yates was supported by Hibbott who touched down in the corner, Moses striking the post with the conversion. Fergus Mitchell replaced the industrious Dave Nichols in the boiler house and Jonny Mainwaring replaced Wright. With nothing to lose Northern threw everything at the Vets including semi naked body builders trying to batter their way through and wily old wingers trying to run round the defence. The Northern fly half even tried to dance his way through in a similar style to Michael Flattley's Riverdance. Unfortunately, as is the Riverdance way, he stood on the same spot whilst gyrating and was rewarded for his efforts by the entire Tyne pack. The ensuing penalty, presumably for illegal, or embarrassing use of the feet was duly kicked by Moses to move the score onto 22-10. The final score saw a great link up between all of the backs, a cross-field run by winger Tim Williams who gave the pass to fellow winger Andy Purvis. With one eye always on the goal line he rounded his man and dived into the corner for the final score. The reward for the Veterans is a quarter final and first visit to Prudhoe and Stocksfield on February 17th which has all the makings of a thrilling local derby.