This started off a very tight game with both sides defending each other and a few mistakes of dropped balls by both sides until 17 minutes in fly half Benny Elliot received the ball in his own half and dummied one way and went the other and managed to beat all the defending tackles to score the first points of the afternoon. He then missed the conversion. Matlock put the pressure on but decent defending by the home team kept the score 5:0 at the half time break.
Shortly after the break hooker Oscar Crossen found himself in the backs and drove forward and sprinted in between 2 defenders to score a try near the posts for Elliot to convert for the extra 2 points. Matlock never gave up and kicked for touch but Max Clarke caught the ball and ran down the line and kicked forward just as he was tackled for man of the match Oli Lyons to dive on the ball beating their winger to the ball. The conversion was missed but the home team were now 17:0 up. Matlock scored the next try to them in contention but missed the kick. Whitchurch then had a lineout on the 5 metre line which was secured and a good driving maul saw Oli Lyons get his second try of the game. The running power and fitness of the Whitchurch backs was again shown when Jake Dodwell got the ball and ran down the wing from his own half to score in the corner with the resulting conversion hitting the ball and bounce back. Whitchurch then kicked to the corner for a lineout and the ball was passed out to Nathan Horton to drive over near the posts for Elliot to convert just on the final whistle to leave a score of 34:5.
Whitchurch are more than holding their own in this league and are looking forward to a break next weekend before travelling to Walsall the following week. Unfortunately, the second team got postponed as Stone could not get a full team to travel. The second team also have a free weekend next week and are at home against Newport 3rd's the following weekend.
Pictures supplied by Tallboy images
