A hard Eg to crack..

The match was played in rainy conditions, in stark difference to the previous weeks heatwave. Didsbury were able to name a strong starting line-up with Mark Chambers, Jon Walker, Aidan Murphy and Dave Foster returning to the pack. Last week's man of the match, Mark Harrison, continued his fine form at openside flanker. The backs also had a reshuffle, with Sean Bishop moving to fly-half and Sam Wallis coming into the team to play on the wing.

Toc H, sporting their change sky blue kit, kicked off the game and some fine tackling cramped their visitors in their own half. Egremont looked to keep the play tight, picking and driving from the base of the rucks, to good effect and suiting the wet conditions. But Didsbury's strong defence around the fringes stopped any early forays towards the home side's tryline. Intelligent kicking by Gaz Oakley, Bishop and fullback Olly Thomas constantly forced the Egremont defence to turn and clear their lines. One such kick was well chased by Mark Harrison, who charged down the kick and sent the ball into touch. Shaun Walker stole the resulting lineou,t and the Didsbury pack drove over for the opening try which was awarded to captain Mike Hyde. Bishop narrowly missed the resulting conversion, and Didsbury had the narrowest of leads, 5-0. Any thoughts that the floodgates would open after Didsbury's early try were soon dispelled as Egremont came into the game and enjoyed some good spells of possession in good attacking areas of the pitch. A mixture of good Egremont defence, the conditions, and some uncharacteristic miscommunication limited Didsbury's chances in the first half. Dave Hoare always looked dangerous with ball in hand, but space was at a premium and the free scoring winger couldn't quite find a route to the tryline.

With a 5-0 lead at half-time Didsbury's coaches called for more concentration from the team, and despite only gaining one more score in the second half, a well taken Bishop penalty, Egremont never truly threatened the Didsbury line.

A narrow 8-0 win but Didsbury will take positives from the game; Craig Lawless had a good game in the second row, Tom Makin looked lively at centre, and the solid defence ensured their visitors left Ford Lane pointless. Next Saturday Didsbury travel to Kirby Lonsdale, looking to avenge their 8-30 defeat earlier in the season.