Second half more like it!

Heath travelled across to the east coast to play a rearranged fixture from earlier this year, when the match was postponed because of bad weather. There was no such problem this time round as it was a dry, sunny afternoon, though a strong wind blew end to end across the pitch. Unfortunately, Heath had selection problems in the week but eventually made the journey with two subs, one of whom was young Matt Cook making his first appearance for the senior side. Additionally, scrumhalf Gary Pidgeon played at openside wingforward and Prop Olly Cook plus centre Jarrod Morris had both finally made it back from abroad. Heath kicked off and spent the first 20 minutes of the contest with possession but were not able to make headway into Scarborough’s half. Then, with the first sustained ball that the hosts managed to retain, they moved play down the line where no 7 Lewis Karl looked to drive to the line, but he was well tackled by Morris. However, Scarborough still managed to retain possession and finally picked up a penalty for a Heath infringement - 3 points followed. Heath restarted, straight away young Josh Lister managed to make good ground and then he released the ball to supporting players. Unfortunately, a poor chip forward handed possession to the hosts whereupon they moved the ball down the line until it reached winger Squire. He jinked inside; avoiding would be tacklers, to score an unconverted try. 8 – 0. More even play followed until 5 minutes before halftime when Squire popped up with the ball again and ran through several flailing Heath arms to score between the posts. Prop Fish took the extras for a 15 – 0 lead. Heath looked to retain possession until the break but a knock-on handed the ball to Scarborough who kicked forward and then chased until a perverse bounce defeated the defence and yet again Squire came along, took possession and sprinted over for another converted try on the whistle. 22 – 0. The second half started as the first finished, with the hosts looking to have the upper hand. Play remained fairly even until Scarborough’s prop Fish broke out of defence and in a surreal moment chipped over the Heath line up, then collected the ball before laying it off to Karl. Despite a last ditch attempted tackle, the wingforward’s momentum carried him over for an unconverted try and a 27 – 0 lead. Despite now trailing badly 10 minutes into the second half, Heath looked to be making progress and were even threatening to score when good pressure was wasted by a pointless kick, Scarborough broke out with fullback Jeffrey running to Heath’s 22, a last ditch tackle stopped a score but a penalty followed and finally a try came from a rolling maul. 32 – 0. From the restart, it was Heath’s turn to take play into the opposition 22. Clean lineout ball was taken by Captain Grant Turton and possession quickly moved down the backs until a fine individual effort from standoff Giles Hetherington nearly produced a score. A tap penalty followed that saw Morris held up short, but, eventually, young winger Josh Lister took ball on the blind side to score out wide. 32 – 5. With a quarter of an hour to go, Hetherington fly-hacked on and centre Si Brown supported to keep up the pressure. Scarborough cleared, only for Morris to collect and sprint back, power through and score between the posts. Hetherington added the extras for the tally to move on to 32 – 12. Then, with just a few minutes of play left, again Hetherington set up a move in the backs and Eddie Cartwright streaked in at the corner for an unconverted try and score of 32 – 17. Finally, in the last move of the season, Heath again took play to the hosts. A good run saw Brown nearly through and, when caught, he laid-off to backrow-turned hooker Ollie Wilby who, in turn, sprinted towards the line before passing to Hetherington. Unfortunately, the referee adjudged this final pass to be forward and the whistle was blown for the end of the game.