The Vets lost this physical encounter by four tries to two but can feel a little bit hard done by as they had two tries disallowed and had several other scoring opportunities which could have closed the game out however nothing must be taken away from a Consett side full of power up front and pace in the backs. Tynedale of course had their own secret weapon in the form of the proper Jonny from the Newcastle Falcons, not the large rotund one of the Williams variety and not the permanently injured one of the Wilkinson variety. No, this one is the Proper Jonny, combining all the aforementioned qualities plus greying hair, none other than the Fletcher variety. The former Tynedale regular who hasn't forgotten his roots came to watch but couldn't resist the sight of former teammates Scott Ferguson, Craig Johnson and Graham Yates to mention but a few enjoying the afternoon's toil. So when the opportunity came to climb in to Scotty's second hand and slightly moist kit he grabbed it with both hands, the kit that is and after a very untypical Falcons type warm up, about thirty seconds, raced on to take up station in his familiar outside centre position. The last time he played at Tynedale was in the Derek Stephenson memorial game where he came on and turned the game on its head and much the same was expected on this occasion however the Consett lads are no respecter of superstardom and despite scoring one of the disallowed tries could not break a sturdy defence again. Another former player making a welcome return was Charles Scott who had a decent half on the wing replacing regular Andy Purvis who has one eye on a cup place next week.
A strong wind blew into the faces of Tynedale in the first half and Consett used a good combination of forwards and backs to score two unanswered tries before the Vets got their own game into gear. A strong scrumage followed by quick hands saw centre Rod Wallace break the defence and finish a forty yard run under the posts, Alan Moses converting. This was the only scoring in the first half and Tynedale were comfortable in turning around only one score down however the visitors hit back early in the second half after some uncharacteristically sloppy defence allowing a further Consett score. After this the Vets laid siege to the opposition line and a second score soon came after some great awareness from Graham Yates who burst through the pack before offloading in the tackle to Richard Parker. With half a pitch and only the full back to beat Parker would never have got their on his own but Moses supported and through some clever interplay between themselves created enough of a gap for Parker to finish the move, Moses converting. Tynedale then returned the re-start close to the opposition line before first hooker Shaun Fenwick and then Fletch the Falcon both had tries disallowed and despite enormous pressure the Vets couldn't breach the defence and a breakaway try for Consett sealed the game for the visitors. The final game for the Vets this season is the Northumberland Junior Shield against Morpeth Stags at Ashington again on March 31st with a kick off time of 4.00pm.