Townsend 10's - Great Hit Out

Bishop Auckland Reds - won 50-5
Tries : Dylan Gittins (3) Louis Matthews (3) Brandon Gilbert, Jonny Allton
Cons : Louis Matthews (3) Shaun Stewart (2)

NE Baa Baas - won 12-5
Tries : Sion Gittins, Charlie Muse
Cons : Shaun Stewart

Hartlepool - won - 14-7
Tries : Dylan Gittins, Darren Kelly
Cons : Shaun Stewart (2)

Bishop Auckland Blues - won 29-10
Tries : Sion Gittins, Dylan Gittins, Louis Matthews (2) Darren Kelly
Cons : Shaun Stewart (2)

Seaton Carew - Lost - 19-35
Tries : Sion Gittins, Louis Matthews, Jonny Allton
Cons : Shaun Stewart (2)

Great day out with refs helping us with the new tackle height, some very physical opponents and an opportunity for us to have a look at a couple of new lads and some ex colts.

We had a fair bit of disruption as four backs cried off but we managed to grab Jonny Allton and Alex Histed to help with numbers although not having a balanced squad was troublesome.

The boys started well dispatching Bishop Auckland's B side with ease before playing two very physical sides in Hartlepool and NE Baa Baas. Unfortunately, Brandon Gilbert good injured and we were down to two backs in the squad - new lads Aaron Muirhead and Luke Masters.

We managed two narrow wins in our last pool games which put us into the semi final vs Bishop Auckland. It was our first look at Bishop Auckland for over ten years and they played with some real width. We had to borrow a few lads from the Baa Baas side as Tom Dias was unable to finish the afternoon. In what was our best game of the afternoon a 29-10 win put us into the final.

Seaton Carew were our opponents who were very good - much better than their league status would suggest. Although I only saw one pair of Seaton Carew socks and recognised a few faces from Billingham on the side line.

We did not play well and went 21-0 down and we looked frustrated with refs decisions and lost possession with unforced errors. Half time chat composed us and we were much better in the second half. We eventually lost 19-35 but got a bit of respect back.

Massive thank you to Matthew, Paddy, James and Sean who helped us out in the last two games when we were down to 10. Great attitude lads.

Thank you to Bishop Auckland for inviting us and hosting the tournament and cheers to the refs for running the games. Lots of learning occurring during the afternoon.

Really appreciate Tom Dias, Sion Gittins and David Lawson doing all the scrummaging without much back up. It was great to see Charlie Muse get back playing for the club and show that he is more than capable of playing in the second row at first team level. There were some outstanding performances up front from Dylan Gittins and Jonny Allton who were able to break the line on numerous occasions.

In the backs Louis Matthews was excellent at 9 making line breaks around the ruck with Darren Kelly and new lad Luke Masters pulling the string in the middle. Luke and other new signing Aaron Muirhead showed signs of class during the afternoon and again confirmed that they will be in and around our first team squad.

Hopefully injuries to Brandon and Tom won't keep them out of our next fixture on Saturday the 19th August.