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Howay the Combe
Blaydon 10-27 Westcombe Park
WESTCOMBE Park finished their debut season in National League Two last Saturday on a high note with a good win against Blaydon at Crow Trees.
From the kick-off, Combe knocked the ball on and while they put in a tremendous shove at the scrum, Blaydon whipped the ball away along the backs to fullback Ralph Smith, probably Blaydon's best player on the day.
He made an outside break of some 60m before covering wing Dave Marshall knocked him into touch with a superb tackle midway inside the Combe 22.
For a while, Combe's defence held firm until Blaydon launched a back-row move followed by a forward drive which enabled number eight Jason Smithson to force his way over.
Fly-half Richard Windle added the extras.
A superb kick by Windle put the visitors on the back-foot, but Combe won the loose ball as they did for much of the afternoon and worked it away.
As Blaydon continued to find life difficult in the scrums, a penalty against their front row allowed fly-half James Whittingham a shot at goal from the Blaydon 10m line.
It drifted just wide, but gave Combe a position from which to exert some pressure on the home side.
A long throw at the following lineout missed everyone, but a Blaydon offence at the ruck allowed Combe another go.
This time they launched a strong attack with prop Dave Weston and the back row of Tom Carruthers, James Lindfield and the probably departing Ian Hardcastle.
With Combe's threes now finding space backed up by a rampaging pack, they then battered the home line before the ball was spun out.
A clever Whittingham reverse-flick found centre Rory Damant in support and he forced his way over, despite the attentions of three defenders.
Whittingham capped this with a superb conversion from wide out.
With Combe's scrum still dominant in the second half, Smithson decided a pick-up and go was his best option.
However, the visitors pressured him into throwing the ball forward and Combe duly re-gathered and set the ball up for Whittingham to give Westcombe Park the lead for the first time with a drop-goal from in front of the posts.
Blaydon soon replied after they came back strongly with a penalty from Windle to again level the scores.
With captain Tom Hayman finally given a run out, Combe were soon pounding away again at the gradually creaking home line.
After the ball was held up in in-goal, the visiting scrum moved forward at such a rate Hayman did well to control the ball and pick up to dive over.
This gave Combe the lead for the second time and Whittingham added the extras.
Blaydon were unable to maintain any continuity with Lindfield still playing the role of arch-destroyer.
Westcombe Park finally wore their opponents down and a Whittingham penalty effectively sealed the match for the visitors.
This was added to three minutes later as Damant set up the finish to a fine move and wing Jaco Du Toit took a crash-ball on the scissors to score under the posts with Whittingham duly converting.
1:27pm Tuesday 29th April 2008
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