Houghton welcomed Percy Park 3’s to the lane on a spring like afternoon with the wind blowing across the pith and offering an advantage to neither side. An expectant crowd had assembled as the return of the The Slayer was announced, alas they would have to wait with the mystery man only afforded a place of the bench.

Kicking towards the club from the start, the Boars started strongly and won a penalty for a high tackle in the first minute. From the resultant penalty kick, Sheepy found touch only for the wind to play havoc with Fuzzy’s line out throwing (so he claimed!).

The Boars started to take advantage of the territory and began to put some phased rugby together and just as they looked set to strike in the 6th minute, Ridley’s pass into the wind on the opposition 22 allowed the Percy Park centre to intercept and run 75 metres unopposed to score under the posts. The successful conversion found the Boars 7-0 down.

From the restart, Park claimed the ball and forced Houghton back into their own half. What followed was a sustained amount of possession from Houghton but with handling errors across the park beginning to frustrate the team.

When young Kerion Smith secured a ruck on halfway, Lydiatt, set up at first receiver and a confident call to McKnight for a dummy run, the skipper clearly had a plan. Unfortunately, the councillor clearly hadn’t red the memo and managed to get in the way! Richie managed to recover the situation whilst offering the politician his own thoughts!

The Houghton pack continued to exert their dominance around the scrum and when a turnover at the scrum inside the Park half, the backs were released and a clever set of hands from Paul Ridley saw the battering ram Lee B smash through the Park line. With only the full back to beat, Bainbridge was felled short and a knock-on on the floor offered Park an escape. However, from the resultant scrum, Park knocked on themselves. Sadly, the advantage offered no score to the Boars and at this point the skulduggery began with Park claiming to have no front row and electing for uncontested scrums!!

As the half drew to a close, the Boars once again found themselves with an attacking line out inside the Park 22. From the throw, Fuzzy found Richie on the check and a good clean take from the captain allowed the pack to set up a brilliant driving maul which made its way towards the try line. Just as the line drew close, the maul collapsed but the ball was somehow picked up by Daz Scofield who ran it in for the Boars first try. The unsuccessful conversion closed the half 5-7.

The second half restart again saw the Boars trying to take the game to their opponents. The introduction of Big Rob and the Slayer almost brought instant rewards and when Rob combined with the backs, a knock-on on the right touch line ended the attack.

However, on 49mins, the mighty midfield orc burst through the defence line of Park and as he headed for the posts, the defender hauled him down with a high tackle 5 metres out and the ref rightly awarded the 7 pointer! The Park players now started to argue with each other and Houghton appeared to have the upper hand.

However, a Ridley restart landed in touch and Park were back on the front foot. The next few minutes were a scrappy affair with a number of handling errors and penalties from the men in burgundy allowed Park to get a foothold in the match.

Park’s inside centre started to become a factor in the game with some great carries and following a period of possession in the Boars half, Park added their second try of the game to retake the lead 12-14.

Then on 61 minutes a moment of bemusement for the manager. Leading into a tackle on his own 22, Sheppy appear to put in a strong tackle on the Park player only for the ref to instantly blow and reach for the yellow card claiming the scrum half had used a shoulder to hit his opposite number.

Down by 2 points and a man short, the Boars showed the true spirit and continued to push the opponents backwards. However, the handling errors continued and continued to dent the positive play of the men from the lane.

With the bench now emptied to get all the fast lads on the pitch, Park appeared to try to slow the game down by simply trying to go round the corner. Big hits from Kieron Smith and the ever-reliable Glen Crowther continued to halt the Park.

Then with the last play of the game, Houghton attacked the left wing of the Park 22 and with ball secured, the ball was moved quickly to the right and Young Fuzzy found himself with the ball sticking to his hands a metre out and unopposed. The youngster let the old hearts panic enough by stepping back inside to cross the line and slide on his knees before grounding the ball for the 5 pointer just to the right of the posts.

The successful conversion on the final whistle allowed the Boars to walk off victorious 19-14.

MOTM - Darren Schofield

DOTD - Gary Shepherd

Houghton Rugby Club

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