Tynedale progressed to the final of the Northumberland Junior Shield with a controlled victory over a Seghill team that had won their quarter final by sixty points. There were a few changes to the Vets team that narrowly beat Prudhoe and Stocksfield with injuries to Richard Cramb and Graham Yates and continued cookery lessons for Richard Jones, puff pastry this week we think. This did however provide opportunities for some other squad members and it was a welcome return for Jonny Mainwaring who, although on the same cookery course as Jones decided that this week at least he preferred vaseline and ralgex to flour and water. Tricky stuff that pastry.
With half the pitch resembling a cow byre and a strong wind blowing across it Craig Johnson started the game and the initial forward exchanges saw Tynedale assert their dominance, which would continue throughout the match. A re-shuffled back row of Mainwaring, Ian Charlton and usual hooker Richard Parker took some time to jell together, a bit like Jones' pie casing one imagines, but as time wore on they started to function as a unit to good effect and constantly harried the Seghill half backs which in turn stopped their back line receiving much quality ball. Scrummages were also in favour of the Vets largely due to the presence of Derek Dixon at prop who made himself known to most of the opposition pack during the course of the afternoon and turned in a man of the match performance. Indeed Dixon quite literally left an impression on one prop as he smashed him to the ground in a colossal collision, which resulted in a large body print in the soft mud of a pitch. Referee Peter Thompson, who had his hands full at times, yellow carded the implanted prop who thanked him and retired to the bar to serve his sentence, never to return. Angus Whitelaw and Andy Murray made up the Vets front row and with Fergus Mitchell and Neil McPherson in the boiler house there was a lot of weigh up front for Seghill to cope with.
The scoring started with a penalty by Simon Clayton-Hibbott and was quickly followed by a superb try in the soggy corner by wing Tim Williams after some fantastic handling by full back Scott Ferguson and centre Graeme Dodds. Ferguson grabbed the second of the day with a trademark power run straight through the middle, which was converted by Hibbott. The industrious centre Rod Wallace was finding gaps in the opposition defence at ease and stood the full back up before putting Hibbott in for an easy third try, again converted. That completed the scoring in the first half leaving a score line of 22-0. Changes at half time saw Nigel Wright replace McPherson, Murray junior replace Murray senior in the front row and rock n roll postie Shaun Fenwick replace Whitelaw at hooker. The pack re-shuffle took a little time to settle and this allowed Seghill their only score after a catch and drive from a lineout. John Eustace replaced Williams on the wing and immediately got into the game making a break down the right before offloading to Ferguson for his second of the day again converted by Hibbott. The final score saw some great forward play through Mainwaring and Parker drive the ball up-field before Johnson released his backs in a move which involved the blindside winger Andy Purvis loop the back line and take the ball on the opposite wing. He still had a lot to do but through a great piece of individual skill chipped the ball ahead and rounded three defenders to crash over in the corner. This ended the scoring only a few points short of the Vets best ever points tally of forty two, which as we all now know is the answer to life, the universe and everything.
The final will be held on 31st March at a venue to be decided which co-incidentally clashes with Jones' soufflé class so we wait with baited breath as to where his priority lies. Bon appetite.