Stocksbridge Town Councillor Jack Clarkson, chose the right Stocksbridge Rugby match to sponsor & was rewarded with an extravaganza of entertaining rugby, as a rampant home racked up over 70 points & demolished Yorkshire Division 3 rivals Northallerton in the process, at the weekend.This bonus point victory cements 7th place for Stocksbridge Rugby, & is the 6th win in a row for the resurgent Pigs as they ran in 11 tries without conceding, & could well have added another 4 or 5 in a very one sided rout.

A crispy Spring afternoon at Coal Pit Lane, an expectant crowd & firm conditions for running rugby welcomed the two teams to the field, the late withdrawal of Jordan Fletcher earned a recall for Jonny Wood on the flank, with Reece ‘gez’ Aspin moving to the No 8 spot, in an otherwise unchanged line up. The visitors kicked off & enjoyed the better of the early encounters with their experienced & heavier forwards driving deep into Stocksbridge territory. The defence again help firm with swashbuckling centres O’Leary & Brown asserting their physicality on their opponents with some uncompromising hits.

As the home side gathered momentum, Bowskill began to conduct the orchestra & a mixture of penetrating kicks & deft handling to release the flying Stocksbridge back line, allowed O’Leary some space to release Westby on the left wing, scrum half Adam Frith was backing up perfectly to score the opening try, just too far out for Bowskill to convert. Shortly afterwards Dave Brown on another bulldozing run took three defenders over the line, & Bowskill was on target this time with the conversion.

There followed some quite exciting open rugby, as the home team finally delivered what they have been threatening to do for some weeks now, with forwards & backs involved in the interplay & off loading game that is fast becoming the trademark of this young side. A stray pass or wrong decision kept Northallerton in the game for a while until Bowskill unlocked the defence with a neat dummy & dart for the line to increase the lead. As the forwards dominated possession with the ‘Stocksbridge Tower’ Andy Beal lending his massive frame to the cause, it was only a matter of time before Stocksbridge Rugby scored again, 2nd rower Sammy Whitaker gliding through the defence for the bonus point try with barley 35minutes of the match played, Bowskill on target again.

There was still time for the relentless pressure from Stocksbridge Rugby to create & miss another opportunity, & for Smith to blast his way through the overworked defence to put flying cockney winger Joe Jones away on a dash for the line, as he was tackled the pack simply recycled the ball & Ben Brown backed up brother David to score a fine try in front of his watching Mum & Dad. Bowskill’s accuracy made the half time score Stocksbridge Rugby 33 points – Northallerton nil.

The second stanza was no different to the first, with virtually one way traffic from the off. A rushed clearance kick was gathered by the reliable, on time, ‘Deepcar Express’ & Kazmierski tormented the defenders with a neat jinking run to allow the supporting Westby a simple run in for a further score, with the radar on Bowskill’s boot locked in, it didn’t seem to matter where the tries where scored. Stocksbridge again gassed a couple of opportunities, but all credit to the team for trying to play open, expansive rugby where possible, much to the enjoyment of the capacity crowd. As the forwards tore the visitors to shred, great vision from truck turned ball handler David Brown cut 4 men out & gave Joey Jones opportunity to showcase his evasive skills, beating 3 defenders to touchdown under the posts, to the delight of sponsor Adrian from SFL Machine Knives, Bowskill read the script.

More tries were threatened & duly arrived in the shape of O’Leary, & Bowskill again, before the fly half left the field as a precaution with 28 points to his name. Not to be outdone Skipper Keenan barrelled over for a further try before O’Leary, who else ? ended the rout with the last score of the game. Just before the end skipper Keenan had to be helped from the field of play with a knee injury & will be doubtful for next weekend’s clash with champions Old Grovians, who will no doubt be looking for revenge after losing at Coal Pit earlier on this season.

A thoroughly professional performance & a final score of Stocksbridge Rugby 71 points – Northallerton nil, left everyone feeling quite pleased with their efforts. Another thankless & determined display by back rower Reece ‘gez’ Aspin, kindly sponsored by Paul Pashley, gave him the man of the match award, ahead of several other worthy contributions in what was a total team performance.
‘this has been coming for a few weeks now’ reflected Head Coach Andy Tyers ‘& someone was going to cop it from us, it just happened to be today’

With 3 matches left this season the Pigs remains keen on maintaining the momentum, but there is a tough test ahead this week & Tyers knows it ‘Old Grovians are worthy champions of our comp & deserve our respect’ he said, before adding ‘we’ve beaten them once already this season, so let’s see just how good we can be, we have nothing to fear’

Match report by Andy Tyers