Belper 1st XV 9 Castle Donnington 1XV 0
A game that did not really spark into life until the last 15 minutes, when Belper
finally cut loose and threatened the Donnington line on a number of occasions.
Playing down the slope in the first half, Belper found it impossible to score a try and
their only reward for exerting a reasonable amount of pressure was a penalty kicked by
Andy Laven.
As usual, the back row of Mick Laven, Merv Holmes and Skipper Ed O'Dell were everywhere,
with Laven making some particularly strong thrusts.
The start of the second half saw veteran prop Alan Mayes going to hospital following a try
scoring clash near the home line.
Mike Phelan moved to the front row, Rob Parker came on and Merv Holmes moved into the
backs where he had a colossal march instigating great defence and also setting up the
grand finale for the Belper backs.
Jon French kicked another penalty for Belper and although they conceded penalties
themselves, the visitors were unable to convert, leaving their score line blank as they
were unable to break through the hard tackling Belper defence.
Eddie Tomlinson having a more controlled game at scrum half hassled his opposite number
into an increasing number of mistakes, one of which forced a penalty, coolly converted
from long range by Andy Laven.
Big drives by Parker and Hopkinson from second row added to the final surge, and the game
ended with the visitors hanging on for all they were worth.
Two well earned points.
Belper 2nd XV 55 Castle Donnington 2nd Xv 0
Belper came into this match following some excellent performances that had not always
reflected their level of play. This game continued the trend in that they played
outstandingly well, but for a change this was also reflected in the score.
Temporary skipper Shaun Thompson controlled the pack exceedingly well against a very
strong visiting eight who on occasions pushed Belper back, but so quick were the Belper
back row of Rob Lea, Tony Issett and Martin Robinson to snuff out the danger that the
Belper line was only threatened on rare occasions.
martin Robinson always looking to snipe from close range scored the first try, before the
backs set up veteran winger Dave Taylor and then young fullback Alex Skivington.
Andy Birchett converted two of them to give Belper a 19 point half time lead.
Thompson then sorted out the tactics at half time, ensuring that the backs saw even more
of the ball in the second half. With the strong running of Anthony England knocking holes
in the visiting defence the backs had a field day, adding five more tries along with the
one from prop Mike Wild.
Young Skivington zoomed into the line to add two tries, winger Paul Thomas another and man
of the matchJohn Tatham hurtled over for another brace, which with three more conversions
saw the score move over the half century.
An impressive performance from this increasingly strong second team.