Match Report courtesy of Chalky White

After last weeks disappointment when Ashington drained the moat around Castle Tynedale to dump the Centurions out of the CANDY cup at the semi final stage, the third selected side bounced back with a terrific win at McCracken park to progress to the final of the Northumberland third team cup.
Playing into a stiff breeze Tynedale took a fifth minute lead whennEwan Morell broke ffree, fed Ben Common who moved the ball to powerful centre Zak Pearce who galloped to the line to score the opening try.
The game was played around the midfield area with both sides determined to gain the upper hand but with the sides being evenly matched and the strong Tynedale defence being tested to the limit, a couple of great turnovers by Dave Nichols and by Mark Smailes, bravely diving at the feet of the Northern centre, to prevent him from kicking through to an unprotected Tynedale try line.
Eventually the large Northern pack wore down the smaller tynedale eight and were rewarded with a try on 20 minutes to bring the scores level. The wind was causing problems in the lineout for both sides but Tynedale were penalised for not putting the ball straight in at the line a couple of times and this allowed the Northern forwards to dominate the set piece and despite the Tynedale front row of Owen Loughead, Ed Craney and Owen Shield working tirelessly to keep the scrums even , Northern were winning a lot of quality ball.
This led to a further try for the home side before the interval to give them a lead of 10 - 5.
Slack defence after the break saw Nothern score a converted try, giving them a twelve point cushion.
With the wind behind them Tynedale used the elements to their advantage by kicking the ball deep into the opponents half making the Northern defence turn to retrieve the ball and making it difficult for them to clear their lines due to the strengthening gusts. On 52 minutes powerful number eight Ollie Hillery broke through the home defence to score the second try to bring Tynedale back into the tie.
The Centurions were winning better lineout ball through Callum Foxcroft and helped by support from Ollie Murrell and captain jake Sloan coming into the back line to create space for the wingers Ryan Laverty and Tom Shrimpton, Tynedale were constantly threatening the Northern line and were rewarded when Micky hall forced his way over the line, fly half Adam Todhunter adde the conversion to bring the scores level.
The Tynedale side continued to play in the northern half and with Andy Neal, Andy Harvey and Olly Shrimpton coming off the strong replacements bench, to add fresh legs to the Centurions cause they took the lead when number eight Hillary scored his second try to strengthen his claim to the man of the match performance, Todhunter added the extras, adding to an all round impressive display by the outside half.
With five minutes remaining the home side set up a nail-biting finale to the game by forcing their way over the Tynedale line, eventually finishing off a rolling maul wide on the right hand sidem the conversion attempt into the face of the strong wind failed.
Tynedale held the Northern side out for the remaining couple of minutes to gain an impressive victory over the wanderers side who had inflicted a heavy defeat on them earlier in the season and shows the improvements made by the team and compensates in some ways for the narrow defeats suffered by the Centurions in the last couple of games.