Mowden enjoy big win

THE thickening fog which enshrouded this match could not obscure the fact that Mowden are far too good to be lurking just above the relegation places in National One.

Their second 50-point haul of the month lifted them to 11th, but they remain only two points clear of trouble because Old Albanians recorded a third successive win.

It promises to be quite a scrap to avoid the third relegation spot with the likes of Wharfedale and Tynedale getting dragged into it because they don't have the depth to withstand injuries.

That is not a problem for Mowden, although scrum half is now a position they have to address again after Zylon McGaffin ended his month's loan from Rotherham with what the sponsors deemed a man of the match display.

They might just as easily have plumped for full back Henry Robinson, while there were other candidates in a dominant scrum as Mowden kept a

1,016 crowd happy by running in seven tries. Tom Hodgson, warming impressively to the kicking duties, converted six and added a 35-metre penalty.

For a team who lie sixth, Blackheath were surprisingly compliant in allowing the match to drift away after competing well for the first 25 minutes. They trailed 50-3 before scoring a late try following an interception in their own half.

It threatened to be another good contest at The Northern Echo Arena, but three tries in the last 15 minutes of the first half put paid to that and banked the four-try bonus for Mowden.

They had scored after three minutes when a maul was illegally halted and from seven metres McGaffin took the penalty quickly and darted over.

Without looking especially threatening, Blackheath shaded the next 20 minutes after McGaffin kicked straight into touch from just outside the 22.

Mowden lost two of their own line-outs as Blackheath kept the pressure on and after missing one 35-metre penalty they landed the next.

Mowden got back on the front foot when a loose ball was hacked on and Joe Nellany was just beaten to the touch down. Then the second try came after 25 minutes from a well-rehearsed move in which Hodgson, going left, turned the ball back inside for Robinson to take at pace on a diagonal run which took him past two defenders to score.

The third resulted from Nellany charging down a clearance. He re-gathered a metre short and lost the ball in the tackle as he dived for the line, but it was adjudged that the ball had been punched from his grasp, resulting in a five-metre scrum with Mowden's put-in.

This was the start of their ever-increasing domination in the tight as they drove over for Guy van den Dries to touch down.

On the stroke of half-time Nellany brust down the middle with Robinson in support and when the ball came back there was a big overlap on the left, hooker Matt Thompson giving the scoring pass to skipper Cameron Mitchell.

Leading 29-3, Mowden took an early strike against the head in the second half and continued to pulverise the Blackheath scrum, while locks Rob Conquest and George Hedgley also began to show up in open play.

It was from another dominant scrum that McGaffin nipped over for his second, then replacement Chris McTurk came off the left wing to take a short pass from Hedgley and burst under the posts.

Finally an excellent pass from McGaffin put the elusive Robinson through a gap and he sent right winger Jamie Barnard over. Hodgson capped his fine display by converting from the touchline.