A wet and windy Thurso greeted the players following the long shift north. Caithness rocked up with 15 having brought their hooker out of retirement to make sure that we could play 15-a-side rugby plus competitive scrums. Kaptein Simba with the motivational ahead of the match and Fireman Cam VC for the day.

KO. Deeside playing from the North End kick off.

5'. Deeside coming forward with early intent win the penalty about 15m from the try line. Getting his hands on the ball quickly Scotty Wilson goes for the quick tap before snaking his way through the Caithness defence to score just right of the posts. Cammy nudges over the conversion and an early 0-7 lead.

15'. Caithness moving up the pitch due to penalties given away by MacLeod (sorry!). In what is their first real attack aided by aforementioned penalties they go through the big men. Deeside defence gets sucked in before they manage to get through to the left of the posts. Conversion pulled left. 5-7

MacLeod heads off to fix his boot with Deano unwrapping himself from his warm jacket to get in on the soggy action. Lyndain into lock and Deano flanking.

With around 30 minutes gone James heads off after taking a bang to the head and MacLeod re-enters the fray with Simba moving to hooker and Kodi to loosehead. MacLeod back into lock putting Lyndain back at flank.

Half time. 5-7. Deeside enjoyed the majority of the possession but turned over the ball a little too easy at times with the penalty count quite high. Scrum and defence was good though and really limited Caithness when they were coming forward.

KO. Deeside set to receive playing from the South End.

A couple of early forays forward by Caithness who are trying to be a bit more expansive. However they are dealt with effectively by the Deeside defence.

The second half saw some excellent runs by the backs when the team were able to get some ball in hand. Harry with a couple of good runs to take the pressure off and to get the team up the pitch. Ben Cowie matching him with a great run up the left hand side to past half way from deep in his own half.

Scott Sinclair joins the action for Deano coming on at 6.

70'. Deeside knocking on the door and Caithness infringe 5m out on the left hand side. Ben Cowie doesn't wait around and quick tap and go and forward into the Caithness defence. Hard to see what occurred in the melee but over the line in the corner he went and try Deeside. Conversion back across into the wind falls just short. 5-12

Following the try Caithness dropped to 14 players with MacLeod heading off to keep the numbers even. MacLeod agrees with Deano that summer rugby should be a thing.

79'. Caithness drop to 13 players with Lobban making way to even up the teams. The scrum down to 7-a-side with no 8, Scotty S in at 6, and Cameron McEwan in at 7. Big scrum from Deeside, 5m out from the Caithness try line, enables Scotty Wilson to pick up and dash into the right hand corner sealing the win. In the last play the conversion by Cammy very narrowly drifts right. 5-17

Full time. 5-17. Overall a solid performance by the Deeside men against a team that whilst lacking in numbers certainly did not lack in physicality. The dressing room tunes were pumping after the match with Kaptein Simba showing off the silky "Samba" hips.

MOTM: Doug Watson. In amongst the turnovers.
DOTD: Scott Sinclair. Sleeping in so needed his mum to wake him up to make the bus!

And finally...for the Deeside mega-fans wanting to know how fan favourite number 4 got on...the self-styled "human wall" outing last week was a distant memory as the game passed him by. Still time for him to give away 3 penalties, use his face effectively in one of his two tackles for the day, and from how his body feels this morning, take part in far too many scrums for his liking. A 4/10 performance :-) When is Keith back?

Stats
Across the first 6 league games the team have:
- won 5. Not done that since the 2022/23 season
- scored an average of 60 points per game. Previous high is 41 in 2015/16
- conceded an average of 10 points per game. The team has not conceded that few points per game since winning Caley North League 2 in 2015/16 (a paltry 7 that season).

Still a long way to go in the season with each game being tough. But a good platform to take into the final 5 games of the season, 3 of which are at home.

Season Try Assists (where recorded):
3 - Gordon John Bird, Kier "The Feet" Morrow
2 - Fireman Cam, Rory Meldrum, "Old Man" Warrington
1 - Mikey "Deeside" Fawcett, Luke Greene, LJ Cool J, Liam Petrie, “Hat Trick” Harry Whitson, CP Williamson

Season Try Scorers:
10 - "Yap Yap" Wilson
7 - Tswai “The Hips” Mweemba
5 - “Hat Trick” Harry Whitson
4 - Ben Cowie, Mikey "Deeside" Fawcett, Tom Riddle (Benji Rees)
3 - "Samba" Biti, Rory Meldrum, Kier “The Feet” Morrow, Doug "YC" Stalker, Lachlan “2 Minutes” Stalker, CP Williamson
2 - "Summer" Abbott, Noah “Hot Step” Bagnall, Connor Bonas "Brothers", Liam Petrie, "Old Man" Warrington
1 - Finlay Hall, Alan MacLeod, "Left Hook" Lyndain O'Brien, Roberto Smith

Season Yellow Cards:
6 - Doug "YC" Stalker (another one...unbelievable!)
1 - Kodi Smith

Season Points:
67 - "Yap Yap" Wilson
44 - Fireman Cam
35 - Tswai “The Hips” Mweemba
25 - "Hat Trick" Harry Whitson
22 - LJ Cool J , Mikey “Deeside” Fawcett
20 - Ben Cowie, Benji Rees
15 - Kier "The Feet" Morrow, Lachlan "2 Minutes" Stalker, CP Williamson, Doug "YC" Stalker, Rory Meldrum, "Samba" Biti
10 - "Summer" Abbott, Noah "Hot Step" Bagnall, "Old Man" Warrington, Connor Bonas "Brothers", Liam Petrie
7 - "Left Hook" Lyndain O'Brien
5 - Finlay Hall, Alan MacLeod, Roberto Smith

Season Appearances (max 7):
8 - Liam Petrie
7 - Connor Bonas "Brothers", Finlay Hall, James Mightens, Kodi Smith

Season Star Player:
1 - "Summer" Abbott, "Samba" Biti, Cameron Lobban, Doug Watson, "Hat Trick" Harry Whitson, "Yap Yap" Wilson

Season DOTD:
2 - Mikey "Deeside" Fawcett
1 - "Summer" Abbott, "Left Hook" Lyndain O'Brien, Scott Sinclair, "Yap Yap" Wilson

And for those brave souls willing to kick for points, Kick Success:
100% - v Orkney 2's
92% - v Dyce
87% - v Peterhead
75% - v Lossie
72% - Season Team Average (includes friendlies)
62% - v Huntly
33% - v Caithness (Stormy)