Cleckheaton made the long trip up to North Shields to face Percy Park in what turned out, like last week, to be a game of two halves. This time it was the opposition who took a significant lead in the first half, whilst Cleckheaton convincingly won the second period and were unfortunate to be denied a couple of bonus points as they fought their way back into the game. Niall Jackson and Josh Plunkett were both absent due to romantic holidays and Olly Depledge was out with a hamstring strain, providing opportunities for Archie Rika-Rayne and Charlie McGovern to join the bench and for Danny Booth, who was later awarded Man of the Match, to take his place in the starting line up.

Park started with the wind at their back and pinned Cleckheaton into their own half for much of the opening 10 minutes. A cross field kick took a helpful bounce for the Novacastrians and winger Ross Young gathered with glee for an unconverted try. Cleckheaton hit back when good awareness and quick thinking from Dale Breakwell, caught the opposition napping after the award of penalty in their 22. The Cleck stand-off, elected to refuse the simple kick at goal and instead tapped the ball and kicked it crossfield where Mikey Hayward was in plenty of space and had the footwork to convert a possible 3 points into a definite 5. The tied scores did not last long and midway through the first half, Park regained the advantage when Seb Reese went in following a line out very close to Cleck’s whitewash. With 10 minutes to play in the 1st period, Ben Thrower was sent to the bin after being judged to have slowed the ball down twice in the same run of play. On the first occasion the referee held his hand out for advantage and on the second he put it in his pocket and pulled out a yellow card. With Cleckheaton down to 14 men, Park had a little more space for their speedsters and Toby Davidson and Will Robinson went in for tries which were both converted. At half time the home side led 24-5.

Cleckheaton, now with the wind at their backs, played with much more intent in the second period. Within 5 minutes of the restart Cleck kicked the ball to Park’s 22 and from a good line out drive, Matty Piper fed Hayward who passed back inside to put James Wilson over. Breakwell converted to make the score 24-12. Cleckheaton could have scored another try 10 minutes later when following a dominant spell by the pack, a grubber kick through the defence from Dale Breakwell was chased down by Wilson and Jack Marshall. The ball took an extravagant bounce and the players, who were the only people within 5m of the ball collided into each other. Percy Park touched down with great relief for a 22 drop out. Cleckheaton continued to apply the pressure and again the back line combined to put Danny Booth away. The conversion from Breakwell brought the scores within a try at 24-19. Cleckheaton were a sniff away from a successful comeback but a spree of penalties kept Park in Cleck’s half and eventually landed them with a kickable opportunity. Ash Smith did the honours and put Park 8 points in front with only a couple of minutes plus injury time to go. It was all Cleckheaton in the closing minutes and they had 3 scrums on the last play, due to Park infringements. A try now would not have won the game but would have landed both a try scoring and a losing bonus point, probably a fair reflection after Park’s 1st half dominance and Cleckheaton’s 2nd half performance. Alas it was not to be as Cleckheaton were pulled for an infringement and the game ended at 24-17 to Percy Park.

This weekend we host Huddersfield YMCA at Moorend for a local Derby in North 1 East and also the first leg of the John Bower Trophy, Kick off is 3pm.