Burley Second XV Versus Harrogate Veterans
16th February 2008
1 Pete Shaw 2 Julian Broster 3 Jamie Ferguson
4 Mike Ward 5 Alex Gerrard
6 Aaron Ralph 7 Jim Griffin 8 Andy Lacey
9 Mark Walton
10 Tim Betts
11 Kenny Parsons 12 Elliot Viles 13 Gave Leeman 14 Marcus Peel
15 Paul Wheeler
The Bench
16 Alex Williams 17 Andy Taylor 18 Karl Heywood 19 Jon Bowskill 20 Stuart Nichols
21 Duncan Elsey
A very cold day saw the pitch solid in places and very muddy in others. Both captains and referee Keith Jones passed the pitch as playable so the game went ahead (unlike the first team fixture away at Stocksbridge which had to be called off due to a frozen pitch).
After a few second team players cried off due to the frost it looked like the Burley fixture was going to have to be played with uncontested scrums. Fortunately first team skipper Jamie Ferguson and fringe player Alex Williams turned up with their kit willing to prop and share the 80 minutes game time.
The game kicked off with Burley starting down the hill and Harrogate kicking off to to men in maroon. A very early knock on was given against Burley captain Jim Griffin and then the ball was deamed unplayble as it was as flat as a fart (thank you, Mark). The Harrogate Men had the better of the Burley pack which losing yards quickly until number eight Andy Lacey gathered up the ball and set it for a ruck five yards downfield. Over the Burley boys went guarding the ball from a very victory hungry Harrogate side. Mark Walton spread the ball to fly off Tim Betts who in turn launched the ball downfield making excellent yards for two sides to form a line out on the Harrogate twenty-two.
It wasn't long before the score came. There was a little tussle on the floor, and it looked like a Harrogate penalty was going to be awarded until a very foolish act by the man wearing the Harrogate number four shirt. Burley got the penalty. Tim spread it out wide to centres Gav Leeman and Elliot Viles, on to full back Paul Wheeler and then to a very strong running Marcus Peel who brushed off three tackelers and crashed over the line giving Burley first blood and a five-nil lead.
Harrogate came back fighting with a high kick off only for it to be collected by man of the match Julian Broster. He charged it in and committed four men to get him to ground. Second row Mike Ward took the ball of the floor and ran it back in collecting more yards before Alex Gerrard did the same. Before they knew it Burley were back in a very strong attacking part of the field. The away team then managed to steal the ball in a ruck and the visiting number ten blasted the ball almost the full lenth of the pitch.
Burley were rewarded with a line out, it was collected in the air by Jim Griffin and presented to prop Pete Shaw who drove the ball on nicely a few more yards. The ball came out to the safe hands of Andy Lacey. A powering run came down the field handing off players from the left as Andy looked for support. Fortunately the large number eight was backed up nicely by both Burley centres waiting for the moment when Andy would run out of steam. That moment came very quickly and after an outrageous dummy, the ball was collected by Gav Leeman who scored a try under the sticks making the conversion look easy for Burley's number ten, Tim Betts to bring the score to 12-nil at half time.
The second half was looking promising for Harrogate, a much bigger and stronger pack were now looking at rolling down the hill and racking up some scores. They were the first to score in the second half with a tight and well organized scrum pushing the Burley pack off the ball and allowing their scrum half to spread it wide and making a massive gap for the centre to cross the whitewash. Burley now realised their work was not yet done. Big tackles were being put in from all areas of the field. Alex Williams had entered the field and looked like he had some anger to get rid off; not only did he play a massive part in straightening the scrum he was mobile around the park.
Then it came ... a loose ball was dropped on by Burley's flanker Aaron Ralph who after being let up by Harrogate, took the ball in and presented it well. It came out and went through plenty of hands until it got to Gav Leeman. He took the ball up and was faced by the Harrogate full back who looked very isolated. Gav looked left and saw support in the shape of Elliot Viles, he looked right and saw Jon Bowskill supporting from the right, so Gav decided to gamble and tried to beat the lone defender on his own. Luckily for Gav the Harrogate full-back was no match for his sidestep and Gav got to the whitewash after brushing of an unbalanced Harrogate full back. Very fortunate indeed, Gavin Leeman.
At full time the game finished with a well deserved victory for Burley second team winning the game 19-13.
There were cries of despair from the Harrogate changing room afterwards claming Burley had fielded a first team as the their match was postponed. I can hand on heart deny that, safe in the knowledge the only first teamers were first half prop Jamie Ferguson, the second half prop Alex Williams and scrum half Mark Walton who all stepped in after skipper Jim Griffins requested they replace cry offs from these specialist postions.
J.Griffin