Burley II V Knaresborough II
22nd September 2007.
Burley 57 Knaresborough 28
A promising day was on the cards for the Burley 2nd XV. After three straight defeats it was our time to win. Skipper Jim Griffin had a job on his hands to make sure all 22 players got good game time, and did a great job.
Burley started up the hill and after ten minutes and some poor ball handling from both teams the away side came up with the first try. A missed conversion to left the visitors 5 nil up.
Burley soon answered back with some terrific ball handling from young ginger Tim Betts on to fellow ginger Aaron Ralfe then finally to outside centre Elliot Viles who dived over the line to level the scores. Tim Betts added the extras from the side line to put Burley just in front 7-5.
Knaresborough kicked back to the home side and the ball was collected with ease by back rower/second rower/front rower/centre Alex Williams who then charged the ball upfield ably backed up by Alex Short and Tom Hodges. The ball soon came out to the backs and was promoted at pace by the Burley Boys. Fly half Mike Kelly provided a wonderful kick up field forcing a line out 20 metres from the Knaresborough line. Rob Stone won the ball straight from the top to scrum half Jonny Baker, on to Mike Kelly, to skipper, number eight Jim Griffin who attracted three defenders before giving a sweet pass to his left allowing Elliot Viles to go over and score his second try of the afternoon. Full Back Tim Betts had his kicking boots on and added the two points to Burley's score line.
All the way through the game Burley were dominating the scrums with fantastic performances from all eight of the pack but especially the front row, Kelvin Crooks (soon to be changed to Robbie Bourne after 15 mins), Tom Hodges, and young whippersnapper Craig Daniels.
The back row consisting of Alex Williams, Daz Grey and Jim Griffin continually wrapped up the opposing back row and half backs allowing all our backs to run riot at a tiring Knaresborough outfit.
Soon tries came from winger/full back Karl Hayward, Alex Williams, Aaron Ralfe, and a fantastic hat-trick from full back/fly half Tim Betts and only one of those tries were not converted (well done Tim).
A massive thanks goes to Knaresborough for coming to us and giving us a very enjoyable game and to all the players at Burley who all took their fair share of bench-time to make sure all the lads got a good run out.
A warm welcome to a new Burley player who debuted from the bench: Jon Bowskill who came on at half time and did a sterling job on the left wing.
Next up Burley travel to Wibsey. Meet at the club house at 13:00 for a 15:00 kick off.