Published at 09:45, Friday, 19 February 2010

Border Park's mixed fortunes continued when they travelled to Alnwick, though the team acquitted themselves well in the circumstances.

Alnwick 33

Border Park 14

The bad weather and a few cancellations in December meant that the Kielder side has only had one game since early December and this showed in a particularly slow start to the game.

But once Border got into their stride the balance of power clearly started to slide towards the visitors.

Alnwick took maximum advantage of the opening encounters to get two early tries over the line.

This reduced Border's sense of expectation when in fact the game turned out to be more evenly divided than first suspected.

There is a distinct home advantage – the pitch has a slope like the dome of a pudding bowl, and the natives clearly know how to get the best out of it.

Border made up their numbers with some Tynedale members and under Rory Craney's captaincy there were a few innovations.

For example, StephenArmstrong moved across the front row to hook, which worked out very well.

Also James Davidson played a full game and was the feature of the many patches of open play.

Another player who had a good game was Mathew Chard who made a first rate contribution to keeping the ball alive.

But the honours for opening Border's scoring falls to Tynedale's Robbo who took long strides around Alnwick defences to put down a first rate try.

Rory Self converted this through, despite a difficult angle on the sloping pitch, as well as converting the second half try.

This came from Haltwhistle's Jamie Fleming, who had a terrific game throughout.

Border mounted the pressure throughout the game, and it would have been Alnwick who would have been the more relieved by the full time whistle.

Alnwick were very grateful that Border had come over to them.

They have had a lot of cancellations of late, including one from another fixture that day, so had plenty of players looking for a game.

Border was happy to oblige, and the game went down well, with a good referee and in the best spirit of the game.

Border Park are hoping for a home game tomorrow, but this is still subject to confirmation by the county office.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk