Barnard Castle look to future after ‘best’ season

CASTLE'S most successful season in their history reached a marvellous climax on Saturday when they played Stockton in the final of the Durham Junior Cup.

Their opposition were not only a side who have for many seasons plied their trade in the league above but had been in excellent form recently, losing by just a single point away at league leaders Billingham the previous week. Further significance to the Castle team was that it would be the last for two of the Castle players; winger Simon Blanch (emigrating) and number eight Steve McGown (retirement through injury) will not be around next season.

Although Castle were unable to completely match the power of a significantly larger Stockton side, they scored two beautifully-crafted tries in the second half. Even the Stockton spectators described them as the best of the game.

Barnie started enthusiastically enough, but had to tackle like demons to keep Stockton at bay, flankers Rob Smith and Ian Hanvey both putting in immense efforts. With only three minutes gone, the Stockton fly-half kicked intelligently into the corner to provide a pressure cooker situation.

In the ensuing catch and drive which led to Stockton's first try, Barnie lock forward Paul Fletcher retaliated after being grabbed around the neck and was shown the yellow card leaving Castle to survive the next ten minutes with only 14 men.

Castle came back well though on his return and Ian Hanvey, Chris Strong and Steve McGown all drove forward ball-in-hand to get deep into opposition territory, and Castle were unlucky not to score when a very kickable penalty was miscued by Andrew Seddon. An excellent breakout from defence also saw an opportunity for winger Simon Blanch that sadly did not go to hand.

Full-back Martin Kitching, however, did make a huge territorial gain up the left wing and follow-up forward drives saw Stockton kill the ball and Simon Blanch slot over the penalty kick to get Barnie on the scoreboard at last.

It soon became apparent that despite being many pounds lighter than Stockton, the Castle set-scrum was by far the tighter unit, taking one ball against the head and shunting Stockton off their own ball at another scrum.

Once again though when pressurising the Stockton line they were unlucky when an infringement allowed the opposition to clear their lines.

Although the Castle scrum was well-locked, a number of times the ball squirted out at the back, putting scrum-half Adam Bellwood in trouble and allowing the Stockton loose forwards to capitalise scoring two further tries for a 25-3 half time lead.

The faithful Barnie spectators were delighted though when Bellwood prevented a certain try by pushing the Stockton winger over the dead ball line when trying to show-boat behind the posts.

In the final minute of the half there was more trouble for Castle when, in an effort to charge down the Stockton full-back's clearance kick, flanker Ian Hanvey was adjudged to be late in the tackle and yet again Castle went down to 14 men.

While still down a man at the beginning of the second half and missing Hanvey's imperious line-out presence, Stockton scored two early tries through a break up the blind side and then again by capitalising on a mistake at the base of the Barnie scrum.

With Hanvey back on and Stockton feeling that the game was won, Castle upped their work rate and brought on some fresh legs. After a beautiful run up the blindside by Adam Bellwood, coach Chris Strong barged his way further up the field in inspirational manner and a fine kick to the corner by Kirk Thompson forced the Stockton fullback to kick the ball out on the five-metre line.

the lineout and great handling down the backs saw centre Paul Davis nearly make it to the line, before quick recycling allowed Seddon on a great angle to slice cleanly through for a magnificent score.

The Stockton backline now started looked apprehensive every time Castle had the ball and with good reason. Davis and John Lavin both went close before skipper Kirk Thompson, whose passing had been perfect all afternoon, once more found Seddon.

He not only broke the first tackle before passing the ball onto supporting fullback Lavin, but also looped around to receive Lavin's return pass.

His searing pace again left the Stockton defence flat-footed for a second try that deservedly earned him the Barnie Man-of-the-Match award.

With substitutes Eggs Clement adding some new abrasion in the tackle and young winger Craig Dominic nearly breaking through on two separate occasions, it was Stockton now on the back foot and although there were no further scores, Castle were very unlucky not to get a try when the Stockton full-back appeared to deliberately knock-on when Blanch would have been through for a try in the corner.