Ashington was once again the venue for the Northumberland Challenge Cup final and once again the Tynedale veterans side was represented. Last year the vets narrowly lost out to a young, fit and well drilled University squad, this year Rockcliffe proved to be more of an even match, at least in the age and rotund stakes. There were only a couple of changes to a strong Vets side from last week mainly due to holidays however one squad member opted to see the Boyz Own re-union gig rather than win a cup. So with the shirt sponsor indisposed the vets kicked off into a strong wind blowing diagonally towards their goal line corner.
The first ten minutes were as always, tense with both packs getting the measure of each other however it became apparent that once again the front row of Andy Murray, Richard Parker and first time father Angus Whitelaw (thank you Jane for delivering the baby on time) were on top of their opponents in the scrum, the irrepressible Graeme Yates and Richard Jones dominating the lineout and flankers Ian Charlton and Nigel Wright in prime scavenging mode the omens looked good. However despite Tynedale gaining the upper hand in the forwards it was Rockcliffe who scored first after a speculative kick downfield was gathered by an onrushing opponent to score under the posts.
Tynedale bounced straight back from the re-start and a drive up field led by Fergus Mitchell saw RP2 driven over in the corner to take the score to 7-5. With their forwards under pressure Rockcliffe changed tactics and started to run the ball wide using their big shoulder-charging centre to knock holes into the Vets defence. Unfortunately the scout who was sent to Tynedale last week by Rockcliffe failed to witness the tackling power of Rod Wallace and Simon Clayton-Hibbott but he didn't have to wait long to see it during this game and when defence was turned into attack the talisman that is Richard Cramb created huge space for his back line. Indeed it was Cramb who scored the next points after making a clean break through the opposition defensive line and linking well with winger Graeme Dodd who drew the full back before giving the return pass for Cramb to score in the corner.
Again Rockcliffe re-started well and applied a consistent period of pressure to the Tynedale line and it took some brave defence led by flanker Wright to keep them from crossing before a scrambled clearance was intercepted and the Rockcliffe winger cut a good angle to score taking the half time score to 14-10 in favour of the seasiders.
Despite being behind at half time the old heads knew what needed to be done and the break was a good opportunity to re-set the game plan. The second half saw Derek Dixon, Dave Nichols and Colin MacDonald replace Murray, Mitchell and Wright in the pack while Ian Lewis, making his first cup start despite appearing in half a dozen finals of yesteryears, replaced at scrum half by Clayton-Hibbott. This allowed skipper John Eustace to slot into his familiar position of full back.
With the wind now reducing in strength but blowing behind Tynedale it wasn't long before Cramb got his eye in with the tactical kicking pushing the ball into Rockcliffe's quarter. From here the pack set the platform for the back line to let rip and with Hibby in vintage form it was he who started the scoring with a snipe from the base of the scrum taking the score to 17-14 after his own conversion. Next up was centre Scott Ferguson who cut a great angle to scythe through the weakening defence and score under the posts.
A period of forward rumbles led to a second from Hibby, after breaking from a rolling maul he managed to ground the ball against the bottom of the post which was correctly given by the referee. Further changes were made when Dodd was replaced by Andy Purvis and the daddy of the team, 49 year old Neil McPherson coming on for a groggy looking Charlton. Almost immediately McPherson was involved as a break by Eustace through the centre was offloaded to him who drove up-field before Wallace gathered the ball and raced away to the corner for his try taking the score to 36-14.
Rockcliffe then had a mini revival taking the game to Tynedale which ruffled a few feathers and led to a series of penalties before the referee awarded a final one for dissent. When RP2 is in your side you expect this to happen with monotonous regularity so imagine the shock when the ref identified saintly Richard Cramb as the culprit. It was admitted later by said individual that it was on the same pitch he received his only yellow card in his illustrious career. With the Tynedale side still in shock and Cramb still begging forgiveness Rockcliffe launched another attack but the challenge was met head on by Dixon the Destroyer. Two massive tackles on their biggest players saw the ball turned over and Tynedale break out of jail. They burst up-field and when Scotty gathered the ball there was no-one in sight of him by the time he touched down for his second with the conversion by Hibbott.
A final flurry saw some good hands by Craig Johnson looking to offload to Scotty for a simple run in however the flying postman was seen running away from the ball with his hands in his pockets determined not to buy another hatrick jug so the move was finished off in style by winger Purvis who put in a shifty sidestep and accelerated through the cover to round off the scoring at 50-14.
The celebrations started soon after by which time the young guns from the second team had drunk there way past their disappointment of earlier in the day, most of the Vets acknowledging that they had all been there at some point during their playing careers, as recently as last year. It was also a chance to catch up with former Hoppers player Paul Robson, now captaining the Ashington second team with McPherson in particular reminiscing about all the happy times gone by. Special thanks must go to errant player Jonny Mainwaring whose building company sponsored the shirts this year. He phoned for the score but couldn't hear because the music was too loud however he did say they weren't as good as Kylie.