Consett 3rds welcomed Bishop Auckland to a very cold and breezy but sunny Belle Vue. It was our first game for three weeks so the lads were all a bit ring rusty.

We started well but we had to make a few changes very early on. Wally had to come off after about four minutes, then Adam Scott, about 15 minutes later. Fortunately this did not change the structure of the team too much. Our scrum was very good from the start and the forwards were also working well in the loose. The backs looked promising, running some good lines and moving the ball well despite the cold conditions. The only thing holding us back in the first half was our own mistakes, especially as we did not react to the referees’ calls! Bishop Auckland were able to capitalise from our mistakes but were not able to turn this into points. At half time it was 7-0 to Consett and all to play for.

After half time restart, Consett had the wind and sun on their backs and things seemed to just click. With a few more tactical substitutions the lads turned up the heat on the opposition. As the opposition started to give way due to the pressure from Consett we managed to broke their lines and run in eight more tries. The extreme wintery conditions hampered the game for both sides in the last twenty minutes with almost white-out conditions before the referee finally blown up for full-time.

Midge had been able to convert a hand full of the tries making the final score 57-0. This was a great way to get back into playing after quite a break.

The Man of Match was awarded to Liam Reed. He was presented with a club tie by Sam & Neil Callon, Directors of Spot on Display the Match Day sponsors.

We would like to thank Bishop Auckland for coming up and our Match Sponsors, Spot on Display of Stanley for their support and we hope you all enjoyed the hospitality and the game despite the freezing temperatures.

Tries scored by:
P Walton - 3
C Urwin - 1
Hodgy - 1
B Murphy - 1
L Reed - 1
G Roberts - 1
M Swinney - 1

Midge - 6 conversions

Thanks to Ian Oxley, 3rd Team Captain for the match report.