Heaton Moor 10 – 22 Didsbury Toc H

Both teams sit comfortably mid-table in the North Lancs & Cumbria league and despite the bonus point win the Ford Lane based club still trail Moor by a solitary league point, but with a game in hand.

Toc H welcomed back Sean Bishop and top-scorer Dave Hoare to a potent looking back line, and Chris Matthews slotted in at number 8 to replace the absent Dave Foster.

The game was played on a very muddy pitch which cut up from the start, but this did little to quell Didsbury’s early onslaught on the Heaton Moor line. True to recent form the Didsbury scrum was immediately into the groove and pressurised their opponents set-piece ball. Heaton Moor’s selection policy raised a few eyebrows in the Toc H camp, with former Didsbury fourth team vice-captain Perkins Joseph selected at fullback. Didsbury capitalised on this by kicking deep to the corners and forcing Perkins into touch. From an early attacking lineout the Didsbury pack drove over for the opening try, with captain Mike Hyde claiming the score. It was all one way traffic at this point and when Didsbury were kept out, by some fine Moor defending, in the left corner they quickly returned to the Heaton Moor 22 to win an attacking scrum in the right corner. The Didsbury scrum powered over the tryline for scrum-half Gaz Oakley to touch down. Sean Bishop added the conversion for Didsbury to lead 0-12. With the Moor scrum struggling Kirky could be heard on the phone to Rhino's complaints hotline bemoaning the number of hours his side had spent on the scrummage machine that week with little to show for it.
Heaton Moor tried to battle their way back into the match, with a number of quick pick and drives making some yardage up the park. But time and again Didsbury managed to turn he ball over, with particularly good work by Aidan Murphy, Shaun Walker and Tony Ames, or force an error. Didsbury’s halfbacks, Oakley and Joe Bradbury, had plenty of possession to pull the strings and create space on the flanks. A clean break by Bishop left him one on one with Perkins, and with Perkins drawn to Hoare on the wing Bishop pinned his ears back and raced in for Didsbury’s third try. There was still time left in the half for Didsbury to score their fourth try, and with it secure the league bonus point. Oakley made a clever break down the blindside in open play, and found Tom Makin on an inside line who outstripped the covering defenders to score, and took the lead to 0-22 at halftime.

With the four try bonus point in the bag, and one eye perhaps turning to upcoming matches Didsbury went slightly off the boil in the second half. This encouraged the home side, but Didsbury defended well and their was no obvious threat to the Didsbury line. Didsbury unfortunately lost flanker Andre Swan to injury, and two successful yellow cards restricted Toc H to 14 players for the last twenty minutes. The numerical disadvantage and Heaton Moor’s endeavour to get something out of game saw the home side grab two late tries, one of which was by Perkins Joseph who appeared to knock on in the act of scoring (unseen by the referee).

A good performance by Didsbury, despite the quieter second half, and bodes well for some vital league games over the next few weeks. Man of the match for Toc H was second row Craig Lawless, and for Heaton Moor Perkins Joseph had a stand out game and never gave up counterattacking from deep.

Next Saturday Didsbury welcome Aldwinians to Ford Lane, 2:15pm kick off.