Burntwood 22 Newcastle (Staffs) 13
Midlands 4 West North

Burntwood gained revenge for a defeat at Newcastle a month earlier to maintain 3rd place in the table. However, the festive spirit was distinctly lacking in a game which included off the ball incidents, three yellow cards and one red.
The hosts put the first attacking move together after 4 minutes with winger Chris Smith making ground into the visitors’ 22 but it was Newcastle who went into the lead on 10 minutes.
They were aggressive at the breakdown to force Burntwood back and when they fed the ball out, centre Liam Bailey escaped through the middle for a try under the posts converted by Timothy Welsh.
Graham Shelley’s men responded well to this early setback with strong running by back rowers Lloyd Shelley and Craig Goodall taking the game to Newcastle.
At the third time of asking, Craig Seedhouse kicked a penalty to reward a good effort by the home pack who took the first of several strikes against the put in to make it 3-7.
This quickly became 8-7 following a poor restart kick by Newcastle. From scrummage possession, full back Matt Bray came into the back line to set winger Smith clear with a perfectly timed pass for a try near the corner flag.
Five minutes later and Burntwood were in again, profiting from another turnover at a Newcastle scrum. John Haire and Seedhouse made ground before offloading to skipper Shelley who stretched over under the posts. Seedhouse converted.
Back came the visitors with a penalty given for offside in the backs and then a superb passage of play saw both sides attacking from deep close to half time, finally ending with Matt Sishton being tackled into touch.
Burntwood conceded a series of penalties to put themselves in trouble and from the last of the awards Newcastle reduced the deficit to 15-13 at the break.
The home side had the better of the 3rd quarter with Bray, Martyn Smith and Chris Smith linking well between the 22s. Skipper Shelley and Mark Poole kept the pressure on but with no reward.
The first of the yellow cards came for a late tackle on Lloyd Shelley but in their haste to capitalise on their advantage, the hosts’ handling let them down. A loose pass cost them one chance and then when Ian Mapp seemed to have scored from a close range scrum he was adjudged to have knocked on.
Burntwood then lost Lloyd Shelley to the sin bin and he was quickly followed by Newcastle front row replacement as the game reached the last 10 minutes, forcing a spell of uncontested scrums.
The score which sealed the win was again provided by skipper Shelley who charged his way over for his second try, converted by Seedhouse. Some unnecessary boot work on the prone Shelley led to an altercation which resulted in a red card for Mark Partridge for retaliation.
A hard-fought win was completed without further incident, the honours going to the Burntwood pack for their dominance in the set scrums whilst Bray was the pick of the backs.
 

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Newcastle 2nds completed a Merit Table double over their counterparts from Burntwood by 19-7.
Despite the poor pitch conditions, both sides put together a good game of rugby which was evenly contested until the visitors lost Ian Jones with an ankle injury and the hosts capitalised with 2 tries in quick succession.
A 3rd try followed later and 2 conversions completed the home tally. In the second half the Burntwood forwards were on top for a 20 minute period. After several phases of play, the ball was released at the right moment for centre Paul Lee to barge his way over for a converted try.
Unfortunately, the Development side lost their momentum after that and there were no further scores in a truncated half due to bad light.

Burntwood Colts went down to a heavy league defeat at home to Sutton Coldfield. The visitors were on top from start to finish to win 50-9. All the home side could muster were 3 penalties by Matt Wood.
They had players playing out of position but they should still have put up a better performance. Despite suffering a rib injury, Josh Bayliss was one of the few to impress.

The last game of 2008 for the U13s ended in defeat away to Newport. With several players absent through illness they were up against it from the start, especially as they had to play into a strong wind in the first period.
They were under constant pressure on their own line and reached half time trailing by 3 tries and a conversion.
They were better after the turnaround with the wind behind and the players settling into unfamiliar positions. The improvement was confirmed when Harry Davison charged over for a try.
However, Newport made good use of their replacements and moved up to 29 points. Burntwood responded well, forcing the home side to concede penalties which resulted in a try for Rory Newhall, converted by Rhys Thomas to make the final score 29-12.
Special mention goes to Luke James, Dylan Webber, Chris Griggs, Adam Malik and Alistair who all played out of position in a patched-up side.

On Saturday Burntwood host a Club Captain’s XV against a Chairman’s Select XV before resuming 1st team action a week later with a Staffs Intermediate Cup tie at home to Leek.