Mayfield Rugby League

12/1/2008 Mayfield B 12 Balderstone Warriors 6

12/1/2008 Mayfield B 12 Balderstone Warriors 6

by “Curly”

Mayfield B faced their toughest test of the season so far on Saturday against Balderstone Warriors in what turned out to be a cracking old fashioned derby match. With not a backwards step taken by either team for the full eighty minutes the result was always going to go to the wire.

Mayfield were up against it when, after a bruising opening five minutes, they had Terry(the windmill) Whaley red carded, unjustly some might say. Defences were on top on a very heavy pitch and the usually rampant Mayfield pack were held at bay by the efforts of the Balderstone line. Being down to twelve men attacking options were limited for Mayfield and they concentrated play down the middle of the park with Andy Reid once more outstanding in that department.

Balderstone took the lead after fifteen minutes with a well worked try out wide which they converted 0-6. Kershaw entered the fray on twenty minutes only to be inexplicably sin binned on twenty one minutes leaving the home side playing with eleven men for the next ten minutes. This was when the true Mayfield character came to the fore with Simon Howe, Phil Ratu and Dave Banner running their blood to water in a superb defensive effort. It must be said that these ten minutes probably set the platform the victory with Balderstone unable to capitalise on their numerical advantage it gave the Field a psychological boost.

Could this have been Kershaw’s ploy. Half time score 0-6. Mayfield had played all but five minutes without Whaley ten minutes without Whaley and Kershaw, lost Cockayne to injury and lost big Jamie to injury but we were still in there with a shout.

The second half started like the first with fierce tackling from both sides but Mayfield’s superiority began to surface with Reid leading from the front and John Marsland distributing the ball well Reid and Nuttall both went close before Marsland, backing up a great break from Howe crossed for a try. 4-6 Marsland added a penalty for interference 6-6 game on. Snape began coming into the attacking line along with Day and Gregory moving the ball out wide and only strong defence from the Spotland side prevented further tries. After another strong run from Reid, Kershaw passed the ball on to big Adam Pirouzan who was unstoppable from five yards out Marsland converted to complete the scoring 12-6.

Balderstone never gave up and were unlucky not to get on the score sheet again when the ball was dropped with the line begging but you have to take your chances in this game and that’s what Mayfield did. As well as his attack Reidy put in a massive defensive effort covering the whole pitch in search of work, he made almost as many tackles as Dave Banner. Once again Big Simon gave his all and at one stage it was hard to tell through which orifice he was breathing. Every player on the pitch gave their all and the sizeable crowd went home knowing they had watched a good hard game of Pennine rugby league and the players knowing they had just played in one. Once again fielding a team with eight under nineteens in this showed the depth and quality coming through at the Mayfield club.