DINNINGTON 21 DURHAM CITY 16

For much of the first period, Dinnington dominated, their forwards rampaging and backs ever-threatening. Their reward was 2 good tries in the 5th and 29th minutes and one rather fortunate one just before the interval.

First lock Michael Leitch stormed up the middle from a disrupted lineout 35 metres out and flanker Ryan Donnelly took the pass to score, stand-off Jonathon West converting, and then West shot through the City defence to score himself before converting from an attack on the right.

At 14 – 0 ahead, the home side were well worth their lead and whilst there were a plethora of yellow cards dished out by the referee throughout the game, fortune favoured them and they struck again as the interval beckoned to make their position virtually secure just as City had started to get into the game.

Stand-off Arnie Stevenson had kicked a penalty for City to reduce the arrears, but as they started to press, a poor Dinnington clearance kick in their own half ricocheted off a City player straight to a retiring home forward, who would otherwise have been 20 metres offside, and he simply off-loaded the ball to his chasing winger Matthew Shaw who raced 60 metres for what eventually proved to be the decisive score. West again converted and they led 21 – 3.

But then came the second-half City reply. A penalty by scrum-half Paul Armstrong after 47 minutes got them going after winger Tom Elliott had gone over in the corner only for a forward pass to be awarded, No.8 Peter Dent then intercepted in the City half and ran 40 metres before finding support which ended with centre Garry Izomor scoring at the posts and Armstrong converting before adding another penalty after 56 minutes.

Now City were within touching distance with the score at 21 – 16 and the wind seemed to be in their sails. But Dinnington rallied, another yellow-card did not help the City cause and they did well to keep the home side at bay as they pressed for several minutes.

At the end however, the pressure was reversed as Dinnington had to withstand some big City attacks, but they held out to record what was a well-deserved victory overall.

CITY: Josh White; Rob Smith, Garry Izomor, Craig Dominick, Tom Elliott; Arnie Stevenson, Paul Armstrong; Tim Mackay, Kenny Reader, Benny Parkinson, Kevin Showler, Tom Baty, Dan Holden, Chris Metcalfe, Peter Dent.

Replacements : Howard Johnson, Kyle Wilson, Nick Howe.