Sedgefield 31 v Barnard Castle 32: Narrow win at the Wok

Sedgefield 31 v Barnard Castle 32
Narrow win at the Wok

Barney travelled to Sedgefield knowing that they would be in for a battle. Castle tend to play an expansive game, with fast-paced forwards and backs looking to spread the ball wide and run into space, but the narrow, boggy and sloping pitch at Sedgefield tends to negate Barney’s strengths and the hosts can count on their bulky forwards to drive down the pitch and kill the game.

The game began as expected, with Sedgefield using their bulk to clear their lines and Castle trying to find space and run the ball. On 20 minutes Barney took the lead with a Ralph Makepeace penalty following a Sedgefield infringement and shortly afterwards Jack Clarke was the beneficiary of a lovely chip over the top by Makepeace and ran in unopposed for the opening try. With the difficult conversion missed Castle led, 0-8.

A yellow card reduced Barney to 14 men and Sedgefield took advantage with a try in the left-hand corner. The conversion came back off the post and the Sedgefield touch-judge bizarrely raised his flag to indicate that the conversion was good, but common sense prevailed, and the score stood at 5-8.

Barney extended their lead with a Ralph Makepeace penalty, but as half-time approached a Sedgefield forward rumbled over for the try. However, Castle hit back immediately as Ralph found space and offloaded to Marty Lonsdale who passed to James Peareth who charged in for a superb try. With the difficult conversion successful Barney led 10-18 as the half drew to a close.

As the second half began Barney conceded a couple of early penalties and Sedgefield were able to narrow the score to 16-18. Castle’s nerves were eased however, by a lovely try from young Harry Parker, who received a long pass from a scrum just inside the Sedgefield half and danced his way through the home defence for an impressive score. With conversion successful Castle’s lead was extended to 16-25.

Sedgefield were quick to hit-back though and their number 8 barrelled over for a well-taken try and with the conversion the score narrowed to 23-25. At this stage of the game Barney were being penalised for being offside and from one of their infringements Sedgefield were able to take the lead, 26-25.

As the game neared an end Barney looked to have made the win safe as another excellent chip by Makepeace was chased down by winger Jack Tobbell who touched the ball down to claim the try. With the conversion successful Barney had a 26-32 lead as the final whistle approached.

Sedgefield weren’t done however and with the final play of the game they scored a try in the corner to take the score to 31-32, with the difficult conversion to come. Barney held their breath, but the conversion was wide and Barney held on for the one-point win.

This wasn’t a game for the purists. The pitch made it difficult, the game was ill-tempered throughout and the referee issued a number of yellow cards, including one to the Sedgefield coach. It was good however, to see how Barney’s young side are maturing as the season progresses, as this was a game that they would have narrowly lost several months ago. . Next week sees the final league home game of the season as Barney welcome Houghton to the Demesnes for a 3pm kick-off.

Nick Raper