NORTH 1 EAST
PERCY PARK 27 – 18 BRADFORD & BINGLEY
Park returned to winning ways to halt the run of defeats home and away, but it wasn’t plain sailing as Bees made them work hard for the four league points. Percy Park welcomed back Alex Tilley and Liam Blackburn in the backs and Ben Bell and Jonny Kidd in the forwards, but again fell victim to the injury curse in the warm up as Josh Hedley was ruled out with a groin strain, which saw Steve Lenehan come into the squad from the third XV game playing on an adjacent pitch.
The 30 year old Canadian made his 1st XV debut to bring up the number of players used in the 1st XV squad this season to 39, and he also increased the average age of 22 from the team originally selected.
The hosts started the game brightly with most of the early possession that saw Andy Dunn score the first try of the game from a catch and drive inside the Bradford 22.
The coaches were soon forced to make and early change to the back division as Dan Osborn was forced to leave the field after a high tackle, which saw Paul Spowart come on a fly half from the bench. The home crowd were surprised that the transgressor from the visiting side was not shown yellow, and then the resulting penalty was reversed after a Park player took exception to the high hit on his team mate.
The Wagon Lane men came back into the game as their openside Luke Peacock broke free down the left flank leaving the Park defence flat footed, and Richard Scull kicked the conversion for a 7 – 5 lead on 19 minutes.
Percy Park struck back almost immediately as the forwards threatened the Bees line after a good midfield break by centre Alex Tilley. Ben Bell appeared to have been held up on the line, but he managed to wrestle the ball down to ground, and the referee was ideally positioned to award the score.
Spowart missed the conversion, but more than made up for it with three consecutive penalty shots at goal, with Bradford kicking one of their own through scrum half Scull. At half time Park were in front 19 – 10.
After the interval, there was a spell of aerial ping pong as both sides kicked somewhat aimlessly, until the game settled down and on the hour mark Andy Dunn scored his second of the match, his fifteenth try of the season so far to lengthen Park’s lead to 24 – 10.
Bradford weren’t about to throw in the towel however and cut Park’s lead with a Scull penalty and then a Shaun Driver try four minutes from time to give the home side a nervous few minutes with the score 24 -18.
With time running out for the visitors, Park were awarded a penalty at the end which was converted by Paul Spowart to give his team the win 27 – 18 and in the process denied Bradford & Bingley a valuable bonus point which would have helped them in their quest to move out of the relegation zone.
Next week Park play host to second bottom Old Crossleyans; it will be a busy day at the club with five home games as the Lions take on Morpeth Reivers for a place in the Northumberland Cup final. The Pumas play Novos II, the Vets take on Tynedale Vets and Newcastle Ravens play Ashington III also in the cup.