W 91-7

By Dave Campbell

Scarborough recorded their biggest ever win at Silver Royd running in fifteen tries with a devastating performance of pace and power against a desperately disappointing Wheatley Hills side.

Although still missing scrum-half Jordi Wakeham who is recovering from knee surgery, the Seasiders were delighted to welcome back fly-half Tom Harrison who has been missing from the action with a broken hand sustained back in October. This freed Tom Ratcliffe to move to his familiar stamping ground at outside centre. Jim Perrett deputised for Wakeham at scrum-half and Jonty Holloway played at fullback. Back row Drew Govier who was concussed against Moortown also missed the game and brother Euan Deputised.

Scarborough received the ‘hills’ kick-off and went off like a train, scoring a try in the 4^th minute when left wing Harry Domett released Ratcliffe to stride over and open the Seasiders’ account. Harrison converted for 7-0.

Scarborough were so much quicker at the breakdown with their back row of Ben Martin, Euan Govier and Aaron Wilson outstanding and it was no surprise when they stretched their lead to 21-0 with tries in the 9^th and 13^th minutes by Domett and right wing Jack Anderson respectively; Harrison converted both for 21-0 with less than a quarter of an hour gone.

It was a surprise however when Wheatley Hill scored with their first bit of decent possession in the home half and some very complacent-looking Scarborough efforts at tackling saw No8 Chris Blessed cross with ease in the 19^th minute. Fly-half Owen Gilvray added the extras to reduce the arrears to fourteen points at 21-7.

Scarborough struck back almost immediately when Domett ran in his second try on the narrow side from a scrum just inside the visitors’ 22 to increase the lead to 26-8

The South Yorkshiremen then shot themselves in the foot when flanker Paul Purnell was sent off for striking Scarborough’s Tom Harrison and this was followed by a visiting player being sin-binned. Scarborough ran in three further tries before the break from hooker Sam Dawson in the 27^th minute, Anderson from a Billy Parker Pass in the 34^th and Ben Martin in the 38^th minute for a 43-8 half-time lead.

With Scarborough rampant and Wheatley Hills demoralized and tiring, the second half was a precession thanks to a dominant pack performance with the back row outstanding, a terrific all round display from Tom Harrison on his return and another terrific performance from the unspectacular but effective Billy Parker.

Dawson added his second try converted by Harrison in the 41^st minute, Harrison touched down and converted himself in the 46^th minute, skipper Matty Jones powered over and Harrison converted in the 52^nd, Harry Domett completed his hat-trick in the 54^th minute and scrum-half Jim Perrett touched down in the 65 and 66^th minutes the second converted by Harrison. That try took the score to 79-7.

The visitors had a period of possession in the home half in the last ten minutes but couldn’t break down a determined Scarborough defence before Martin bagged his second converted by Harrison in the 72^nd minute and skipper Jones crossed in the 76^th minute for 91-7.

CAMPBELL’S COMMENT:

Like every game of rugby, a team has to play what is put in front of them and Scarborough did that with clinical efficiency. The squad played well as a unit with Martin, Govier, Harrison, Parker and Perrett outstanding. As for Wheatley Hills they will have to take a long, hard look at themselves and their attitude if they want to stop the slide that started in North One

 

Scarborough

Tries: ratcliffe, domett 3, anderson 2, dawson 2, martin 2, harrison, jones 2, perrett 2

Conversions: harrison 8

Wheatley Hills

Tries: blessed

Conversions: gilvray

Teams

Scarborough: holloway anderson parker ratcliffe domett harrison perrett cutino dawson jones readman watson wilson e.govier martin
Substitutes: whitton leah white

Wheatley Hills: laycock holridge butler cahill kerry gilvraty taylor norton kerry stephenson undy foy stabless purnell blessed
Substitutes: ajimati dixon hamilton

Scarborough News "Man of the Match": ben martin

Ben once again had an outstanding match working with his back row partners and linking with his half-backs. His tactical awareness, defence and his ability to step on the gas from a standing start caused havoc in the visiting defence. Not for the first time he proved himself to be a real class act