Broughton Park FC

Park’s 1^st XV made their first trip to Waterloo’s Memorial Ground in many years as they faced last season’s fourth placed team on wet and blustery day in north Liverpool.

The away side made hard work of the opening quarter, failing to adapt to the conditions with mistakes allowing Waterloo early possession and territory. The home side made the most of this by sticking with a pick and go game suited to the conditions which yielded the first score of the match.

Park then responded showing some of the fluency that saw them to victory against Manchester last week. This accumulated with Josh Maddock scoring in the corner and Alistair Dudell, on debut, adding the extras to make the score 5-7 to Park. However, as the half wore on Park’s penalty count increased at an alarming rate, accumulating in a yellow card for Tom Dewland. While Park’s defence held firm with a man down, they were further punished for their indiscipline with Waterloo converting two penalty kicks at goal to make the score 11-7 at half time.

Park started the second half as they finished the first half, losing possession too cheaply and allowing Waterloo to piggy back on the back of penalties conceded. Waterloo made the most of this and scored their second try of the match in the corner. With the scores 16-7 Park saw a marked improvement and had Waterloo under sustained pressure due to good phase play from the forwards. This upturn saw Dudell go over for a debut try and he tacked on the extras to allow Park to close to 16-14. However, as Park chased for a winner a loose ball was scooped up by Waterloo’s replacement centre who then outpaced his pursuers to score. Waterloo’s fly-half added the extras and increased their lead to 23-14, much to the relief of the home crowd.

There was still time for one final incident which unfortunately saw Park’s captain Paddy O’Donnell sent off for stamping after treading on a Waterloo hand which was where it shouldn’t have been at a breakdown.

After a difficult run of four defeats, Park’s 2^nd XV finally put a stop to the early season rot running out comfortable winners against bottom of the table Sedgley Park.

After a number of disappointing defensive performances over the past month this week saw a dramatic improvement led by Angus McColl. Park will been more pleased with shutting out Sedgley than the amount of tries scored against them. Highlights of the first half included Harry Gallagher picking up his first try for Park, beating his opposite man and then outpacing his pursuers from 40 meters out on the wing. Another standout try came from debutant hooker Cameron Flavell’s quick thinking at a line out. The Kiwi spotted space down the short side and took the line out quickly, enabling to pack to drive over the line to score.

With most of the damage done in the first half, Park controlled the second half not allowing Sedgley a sniff of the try line. The boot of captain Marcus Eaton ensured that Sedgley that any mistake they made in Park’s half was punished by being pegged back to their own twenty two. With the win secured and the opposition prevented from scoring, Park will look to getting their season back on track.

The win lifts them from second bottom in the league up to sixth in what is proving to be a tight fight behind the top two of Sandbach and Birkenhead Park.

The mercurial 4^th XV fell to their second defeat of the season as they travelled to unbeaten league leaders Wythenshawe. Having been without a game for the past couple of weeks Park lacked the cohesiveness of a team in their groove like their hosts.

While there were a few bright spots of play from Park they were unable to sustain it for long periods of the game and the league leaders showed why they were top without defeat, punishing Park’s mistakes. The 4^th XV will return and hopefully with this game out of their system will get their season up and running next time out.

The ladies travelled part way across the Irish Sea to take on Vagabonds on the Isle of Man on Saturday.

It was a match that typified the saying of a game of two halves, with Park enjoying the majority of possession and territory in the first half. Some excellent play from the whole team saw tries for Captain Louise Sinclair and Georgia Sutherland, following first a half break from Daryl Grey and then the pack driving through the Vagabonds defence. In a rare attack in the half from Vagabonds saw their winger break Park’s defensive line only to be stopped by the covering tackle of Park’s full back Nicky Cowell. She was then the catalyst of Park’s next score when she collected a Vagabond clearance and used her pace to beat several defenders before being hauled down in a dangerous position. From there the Park forwards sucked in the Vagabond defense allowing Sutherland to break clear for her second score of the match. The only blot on Park’s book for the half was a mistake which allowed Vagabonds to narrow the score to 19-7 at half time.

The worsening weather and Park’s willingness to play rugby from anywhere was their undoing in the second half. As a result of increasingly wet and windy conditions Park saw errors creeping into their game and turned over possession more frequently than the first half. Vagabonds showed their greater experience by modifying their game to suit the conditions and with the majority of possession began to turn the screw on Park. Throughout the half the chipped away at Park’s lead before finally taking the lead with 77 minutes on the clock, they did not relinquish the lead and completed an impressive comeback winning 24-19.

After promising performances against league leaders Wigan and narrowly losing to Colne & Nelson last time out, Park’s Senior Colts picked up their first win of the season against Burnley. A commanding victory will have been well received by the Colts' coaches and no less than the squad deserved after a lot of hard work the past few weeks.

While a sloppy first half may have seen the Colt’s struggle against better opposition, they clicked in the second half a produced their best performance of the season. A hat-trick of tries from Nayuss Day set the Colts on their way to victory with other scores coming from centre Jake Spellman and back rower Tom Crook.

However, the pick of Park’s tries came from Jordan Dixon, who finished of a well worked team try that saw that saw second row forwards steaming in to wide spaces and making ground before picking the right pass. A hugely encouraging win for all involved with the Colts and now the expectancy is for them to play as they did in the second half for whole matches.

Credits

Paul Metcalfe
Tom Mortimore
Dave Hanby
Paul Mousley
The Author