DURHAM CITY 66 WHEATLEY HILLS 10

Durham City bounced back from defeat the week before with a 10 try romp against Doncaster side Wheatley hills in their North1 East League clash at Hollow Drift. Although they still struggled in the set scrums, they simply had far too much for the Yorkshire club in every other area of play and swept to victory.

Two tries in the opening 7 minutes set them on their way, No. 8 Peter Dent picking up at a scrum 5 metres out to feed scrum-half Will Paxton for the first and an inside pass by centre Bradley Pears to flanker Craig Dominick securing the second under the posts. Full-back Paul Armstrong converted both and City were flying at 14 – 0.

A Wheatley Hills penalty by winger Owen Gillvray pegged them back momentarily, but three further tries in the last quarter of an hour before the interval secured the try bonus point. A pick-up and strong run by winger Garry Izomor opened the way for stand-off Charlie Scott to take an pass and score in the left corner, Hooker Mike Hay then fed Dominick on a short pass following a lineout to blast over for the next, and Izomor got the third in the left corner again when they ran from a lineout on the other side. With Armstrong converting two of them, by the interval their lead had stretched to 33 – 3.

Pears was almost over 5 minutes into the second half before Dent stretched through a ruck on the visitors’ line to score the sixth try, Armstrong converting , but then came a blip as the visitors exerted some pressure on the City line and were rewarded with a penalty try which Gillvray duly converted to take the score to 40 – 10.

From then though, City pressed home their superiority, Pears scoring when finishing off a fine 70 metre run out of defence by Izomor and then combining with Dominick for another when City ran quickly from a penalty in midfield.

Dominick then helped himself to another two to take his try tally to 4 for the match, firstly following a Pears break and some fine inter-passing among several City players, and then breaking from 20 metres out as they attacked from a lineout for the 10th try. With Armstrong converting 4 of the second-half tries to take his tally to 8 for the match, City ended very comfortable winners.

This weekend City travel to Penrith for another league fixture.

CITY: Paul Armstrong; Sam Heron, Bradley Pears, Arnie Stevenson, Garry Izomor; Charlie Scott, Will Paxton; Jim Earley, Mike Hay, Benny Parkinson, Kevin Showler, Tom Baty, Chris Metcalfe, Craig Dominick, Peter Dent.

Replacements; Howard Johnson, Josh Pratt, Tim Mackay.