| Broughton Park 1st XV | 10 |
| Stockport 1st XV | 24 |
Park’s testing start to the season continued with last season’s 5th placed side Stockport the visitors at Hough End. Despite the away side boasting a former England international in their pack, Park started the brighter of the two and enjoyed the majority of possession and territory. However, it wasn’t until midway through the half they had something to show for their endeavour. After another infringement at the breakdown within their own twenty-two, Stockport’s number 8 was sent to the bin and Matt Raybould slotted the resulting penalty. The momentum shifted following the restart with Stockport camped within Park’s own twenty-two. However resolute defending saw Stockport held up over the try line and eventually come away empty handed.
The second half started as the first half had finished with Stockport turning up the pressure on Park. Eventually, it told with Lawrence Tully sent to the bin after the referee warned Park about infringing close to their try line too many times. With the man advantage, Stockport went over for their first try of the match and took the lead 3-7. Park responded well to going behind and once restored to a full complement retook the lead through Bruce Lacey, Raybould adding the extras for 10-7.
As the game entered the final quarter Park began to tire and became ill disciplined, with Stockport first scoring after some poor tackling and then Park saw scrum-half Matt Hodkinson sin-binned. Stockport didn’t pass up the opportunity to turn the screw and some excellent back play was rewarded with their third try of the match, establishing a 14 point lead at 24-10.
Park were unable to find a way back into the game as the final 10 minutes went by and fell to their second defeat of the season.
| Glossop 2nd XV | 38 |
| Broughton Park 2nd XV | 5 |
Park’s 2nd XV travelled to the Derbyshire Peaks to face Glossop at Hargate Hill on the back of a less than ideal build up. This told in the early exchanges with Park searching for fluency as Glossop took advantage, scoring the first try of the match from a catch and drive. Park then managed to find parity, with new centres Joe Sinclair and Joe Richardson helping the Park back line to break through on several occasions. While the forwards in the loose were making Glossop work hard, Park’s own line-out continued to pose problems with several promising positions lost. This was then compounded following the sin binning of Bashir Mutts, after which Glossop and Park traded penalties with captain Marcus Eaton getting Park on the board.
Park headed into the second half trailing by five points with the score at 8-3 and begun the half in the ascendancy. More good work in the loose by the forwards, with Daf Evans impressing, provided the backs with fast ball to get in behind Glossop. However, the backs’ final execution on the day wasn’t up to their usual standard, with several opportunities not fully grasped.
As the game wore on Park inevitably began to tire and Glossop reinforcements turned the tide against Park. Glossop began to get the scoreboard ticking over with a couple of tries and it looked as though the game was getting away from Park. However after threatening all game Park’s backs finally got the try some of their play deserved, with James McLaughlin scoring in the corner. Unfortunately, this proved to be a consolation score rather than the beginning of a comeback, with Glossop adding further tries in the final 10 minutes of the game to run out 35-8 winners.
