Northallerton first team hosted Malton and Norton 2nds at Brompton Lodge in close encounter that eventually turned in Maltons favour by a score of 17-20.
Once upon a time in the mid/late 1990’s Northallerton 1sts were on a par with Malton 1sts only for Malton to climb into higher leagues while North stagnated in the Yorkshire 2/3 divisions.
Back to the game, North took control early on and dominated most of the first half with Phil Swall touching down at the back of rolling maul for an unconverted try.
Fifteen minutes later, following more pressure the slimline weird mullet of James Hopkin appeared, back from injury and semi retirement and barged through two tacklers for North’s second unconverted try of the game.
North went in at half time 10-0 up but in reality they should have scored four or five tries instead of just the two. Only good last ditch tackling and bad judgement calls from North kept the score down.
Five minutes after half time a rolling maul from North, similar to the first try, was scored by Nobby Clarke Junior. Jack Tarte finally added his first conversion of the season to give North an apparently comfortable 17-0 lead.
Only two minutes later Malton came back into the game when North fell asleep and allowed a quick tap penalty which led to a converted try under the posts.
North then became flustered, and in their attempt to contain the visitors gave away endless penalties. Malton capitalised on this to score two penalties and make the score worryingly close at 17-13.
Ten minutes from time the visitors pressure told as they broke through for another converted try to take a three point lead.
In the dying seconds North had the chance to score the winning try but unfortunately replacement prop Dougie Mulholland fumbled the ball over the line. Nobody blames him (except the grumpy old men spectating) for this error though as a few seconds earlier he had shown his audacity and skill to make the chance with an outrageous dummy that bamboozled two opposition backs.
North can look on this a lesson learnt not to be too confident while also being proud of the commitment shown, especially in the first half.

Next week Northallerton 1sts welcome local rivals Ripon to Brompton Lodge for a 3pm kick off for what is always a highly charged and competitive encounter.

Northallerton 2nds were also at home to a Malton and Norton 3rd team and thanks must be given to the opposition for fulfilling the fixture and travelling in numbers.
However the game had to be abandoned in the first minute following a serious injury to the young Malton back row forward who had to be taken to hospital by ambulance.
All at North wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to hopefully seeing him in the return fixture later in the season.
North 2nds are awaiting fixture confirmation for next week.

Northallerton Ladies played away at Redcar Sirens in the first round of the Women’s Junior cup on the Sunday and after a slow, error strewn start eventually ground out a 22-31 victory.
North Ladies struggled early on as quite a few of the players were feeling the after effects of the previous nights rugby clubs annual GESS competition - the Golfing End of Summer Spectacular.
With a first half strewn with knock ons and missed tackles North finally woke up in the second half thanks to tries from Molly Snaggers(2), Libby Houston, Cara Williams and Sophie Bedford. Bedford also added three conversions.
Players of the match were given to Libby Houston as forward of the match, Molly Snaggers as back of the match and Lucy Christie as the oppositions choice.
Next Sunday Northallerton Ladies are at home to Novocastrians.