PONTELAND 12 DURHAM CITY 45

The visitors had moved into a 24 – 0 lead with four fine tries in the opening 35 minutes. Running the ball from depth, centre Darren Witte opened the way for the first two which winger David Gibson finished off, a fine run by full-back Rob Smith followed by a loose Ponteland clearance allowed hooker Kenny Reader to pick up and feed winger Mark Woodward to cross for the third and Smith raced 60 metres on a mazy run to get the fourth. Scrum-half Paul Armstrong converted two of them and City were flying.

But 2 minutes before the interval, a chip ahead and catch by the Ponteland full-back caught City flat-footed and he broke clean through to put stand-off Will Newbiggin in under the posts.

Winger Scott Anderson converted to reduce the arrears to 7 – 24, and after half-time, they picked up where they had left off. Counter-attacks by both sides ebbed and flowed briefly, but the pressure was coming from the home side and when City stand-off Arnie Stevenson was yellow-carded, City were forced into desperate defence.

Ponteland’s reward came in the 58th minute when No.8 Stuart Weir forced his way over from a 5 metre scrum, but that was where their challenge ended as City got their act together again to score another two tries in a 3 minute period.

From a scrum 15 metres out they attacked the short side, No.8 Paddy Dias and Armstrong combining for Smith to get his second try, and then Witte juggled with the ball before scoring after a strong Dias burst. Armstrong converted both and suddenly City had widened the margin to 12 – 38.

Finally, with 8 minutes left, they won the ball at a Ponteland scrum and centre Nick Howe broke to score their seventh try. Armstrong converted to round off a good performance which might have been even better but for a few handling errors.

Tomorrow, City entertain league leaders Blyth at Hollow Drift (KO. 2.00pm).

CITY: Rob Smith; David Gibson, Nick Howe, Darren Witte, Mark Woodward; Arnie Stevenson, Paul Armstrong (c); Colin Hogg, Kenny Reader, Benny Parkinson, Matthew Sayer, Tom Baty, Liam Wilson, Jeff Roberts, Paddy Dias.

Replacements: Graeme Herbert, Tom Hodgson, Mark McCreedy