DURHAM CITY 22 OLD BRODLEIANS 17

That it was achieved without several regular players due to injury was to their credit and hopefully stops the rot that was beginning to set in after a run of three defeats.

A penalty by scrum-half Lewis Groves in the first minute set them on their way and despite the visitors pressing for the next 5 minutes, a great drive by the forwards at a Brodleians’ scrum 15 metres out which saw the ball run loose, allowed Groves to hack on and win a race for the touchdown to put them 9 – 0 up after 7 minutes.

The visitors’ response was swift however. After No.8 Luke Scrimshaw had broken away from a retreating scrum and chipped to the City line, they kept the home side under pressure and when a big driving maul was stopped in the corner, they opened for full-back Tom Booth to break and score in the 12th minute and flanker Oliver Akroyd converted to close the gap to
8 – 7.

But with the home pack having the edge in the set scrums and some good loose play, City were quickly on the attack again. A fine break by flanker Jeff Roberts and chip ahead to the visitors’ 22 might have produced more, but when full-back Rob Smith broke in the 37th minute, the move was carried on and stand-off Alistair Blair was driven over by his backs for Groves to convert and re-open an 8 point margin at the end of what had been a fairly evenly-contested first-half.

A great opportunity went begging when City created a big overlap early in the second half, but after 60 minutes they extended the lead with a superb third try. Created and scored by Smith who, after fielding a kick deep in his own half, ran, chipped ahead and gathered before feeding the supporting Roberts on his inside and then taking a return pass to race down the touchline from 30 metres to score and give City a seemingly comfortable 22 – 7 lead, Groves having added the conversion.

But the visitors were not finished and piled the pressure on. A try by winger James Marshall when they ran a quickly-taken penalty which Akroyd converted before adding a simple penalty, got them back to 22 – 17 with 8 minutes remaining. However, despite Blair being yellow-carded for that offence, it was City who controlled to the end, camping on the visitors’ line and threatening a further score which only fine defence prevented.

Tomorrow, City travel to leaders West Hartlepool for a re-arranged North 1 East League game (KO. 3.00 PM).

CITY: Rob Smith; Chris Metcalfe, Adam Morton, Will Kirtley, Peter Van Loo; Alistair Blair, Lewis Groves; Josh Brown, Mike Hay, Matt Young, Peter Dent, Alex Whitfield, Jeff Roberts, Tom Hand, Stuart Smithson.

Replacements: Benny Parkinson, Luke Burgess, Thomas Howard.