Blackwell Meadows is becoming a fortress again!!!

Darlington 117 Medicals 20

Darlington celebrate a return to their original black and white colours with a record breaking win over a determined and spirited Medical team.

What can only be described as a clinical victory, the early exchanges may have made the growing crowds at Blackwell Meadows think the home team were in for a rough ride. With Medicals showing great pace out wide and a desire to play with width initially stretched the Darlington side. However, Darlington's first three visits to the Medicals 22 saw them score 3 driving maul tries coming from precise kicking from Nick Baldwin.

The progressive darlington pack , who scored 8 tries cleared the way for the young backs to show their skills who between them scored 11 tries with Nick Baldwin completing 11 conversions.The back row of Colin Rogers, James Carver and Andy Hodgkins proved to be far too powerful and technically correct at the rucks for their opponents, and created a vast supply of fast clean ball. The home crowd witnessed precise rucking and clinical set piece work with Steve Taylor dominating the line outs allowing the young backs to run some majestic handling moves enabling players running strong lines to carve through the Medical backline. The inter play between backs and forwards created continuity that was a pleasure to watch. The half backs of Mark Baldwin ( later substituted by marcus connew 1 try) and Nick Baldwin ( 2 tries) unselfishly provided a continual supply of fast accurate ball for centres Andrew Pugh(4 tries) and Leigh Johnson( 2 tries) to create space for themselves and supporting players to score. Connor Elser playing full back (1 TRY), Warren Peterson(2 tries) and Dave McFall all enjoyed excellent games.

Coach Duncan Scarr was particularly pleased by the holistic team effort and cohesive display allowing forwards Bill Smith (2 tries) J Carver (2 tries) Chris Oakley (1 try), C Rodgers (1 try) R Goddard (1 try) to contribute to this comprehensive victory with Joe Oselton, Gareth MacManus and sub Neli Scullion playing their part. Darlington have no first team fixture next week and take a well earned break.

It was lovely to see rugby being played with such enthusiasm for enjoyment, both teams should be congratulted for providing the spectators with such a spectacle of entertaining and creative rugby.