Didsbury Toc H 36 – 8 Ashton under Lyne

Didsbury are nearing two years of being undefeated at Ford Lane in league action and proved again why they are so hard to beat at fortress Ford Lane. From the very first whistle the Didsbury pack showed they had the upper hand in the tight exchanges, with prop Tony Ames joining regular front row counterparts Hyde and Walker.

Didsbury scored early in the game with a neat move down the left flank, with Dylan Williams finishing the try. A typically pacey break by Pete Davies pulled the visiting defence apart and some fine support play by Williams saw him crash over in the corner. Toc H continued the early pressure when a 5 metre lineout resulted in a drive over the tryline, the try was awarded to former Altrincham Kersal player Andy Lynn. The pack sustained the battering of the oppositions line with a penalty try awarded after Ashton’s scrum disintegrated , leaving the referee with no option but to award the try. Ashton seemed unable to clear their lines, missing several penalty kicks to touch allowing Didsbury’s backline to counterattack . Against the run of play Ashton got themselves on the scoreboard, a kick was misfielded in the Didsbury defence allowing an Ashton player to dive on the loose ball. The mistake was by Dave Hoare, but he went on to more than make up for his transgression by adding two second half tries.

The second half was a stuttering affair with the referee stopping the action at every opportunity resulting in the home side being unable to get any flow into their game. Substitute Chris Reeves made an instant impact off the bench, crashing over for a try with his first touch of the ball.
Hoare’s brace of tries takes him to 25 for the season and sees him one ahead of Peter Davies on 24. A number of players performed well for the home side, Jamie Southall looks settled in the centre’s with Williams and Gaz Oakley controlled the game from scrum half. The backrow combination of Swann, Foster and Lynn looked particularly combatitive, but Andre Swann will now miss the remainder of the season due to rugby commitments in Australia.
Next Saturday Didsbury visit Garstang in league action.