Blaydon 31 Stourbridge 10

IF Blaydon were worried about relinquishing home advantage by staging this match at Percy Park, they didn’t show it.

From the outset they played as though on familiar territory, showing commendable enterprise despite the soft going.

They might have had cause for concern when Andrew Baggett tarnished his excellent performance by missing three penalties either side of half-time, leaving the score locked at 10-10 when it was clear that Blaydon had the beating of opponents two places above them in National One.

But they simply stepped up a gear and added three converted tries to claim the fourtry bonus in their fourth successive win.

The previous three came in the first three weeks of November, but Blaydon were clearly determined not to let the seven-week break interrupt their climb up the table.

With Crow Trees frostbound, their desperation to play saw them decamp to the coast. Stourbridge had no objection, and why would they?

Having travelled on Friday evening, they had the opportunity of a bracing stroll on Tynemouth seafront prior to enjoying near perfect conditions at an impressive venue.

The Percy Park team has seen better days, around 50 years ago when their full back, Don Rutherford, played for England. But the facilities are well up to national league standard and any locals present on Saturday would have wished they had a team to match.

Their appetites would have been whetted by the commitment, adventure and skill of a Blaydon side who have a good blend of muscle and athleticism up front.

This even extended to the bench, from which the 6ft 7in athlete Shaun English made an impact in the last half hour and Paul Vinnicombe added his muscle in the last 20 minutes.

They also sent on Matt Clark at centre. He has been one of the finds of the season, but has lost his starting place because Director of Rugby Tom Rock has moved out from nine to 13 to allow young Matthew Mellish to develop at scrum half.

Mellish, signed from Westoe, provided the kind of service which allowed Baggett to flourish back in the fly half duties he was originally signed to carry out. He initially struggled on his arrival from Wharfedale, lost his place then had a spell at centre.

But he looked thoroughly assured on Saturday, sending over centre Paddy Dias for the first try and scoring the last himself for a tally of 16 points.

Baggett’s try followed his superb kick from deep in his own half, pinning back Stourbridge, who compounded their dithering attempts to clear by conceding ten metres for contesting a penalty decision.

Five metres out, Blaydon opted for a scrum and Baggett cut through under the posts.

All four tries were from close range and resulted from forward pressure, prop Robbie Kalbraier burrowing over by the posts shortly after having a nasty head wound bandaged at half-time.

The game was still in the balance until Vinnicombe touched down a pushover from a five-metre scrum with 13 minutes left.

Blaydon dominated the first 15 minutes but were level at 10-10 because both times they took the lead they failed to deal with the restart.

These fumbles immediately put them under pressure, and Stourbridge capitalised by wiping out Baggett’s early penalty then replying to Dias’s try with a catch-anddrive touchdown.

When Blaydon dropped the restart after the interval, the visitors might have sensed a chance to take control. But the opportunity was denied them by a team whose efforts were typified by the tackling and foraging of open side Rob Bell.