Thirds can take comfort from Narrow loss.

On a sweltering hot afternoon, it was a lack of self belief and confidence in the first half that cost Buxton Thirds the game. Hope Valley Firsts were well drilled and organised and were able to field five substitutes which given the conditions was a major advantage. They scored three well worked tries, but as the Thirds grew in confidence in the second half they began to demonstrate what they are capable of and finished the stronger side.
The opening exchanges were evenly matched, the Buxton front row of MacDonald, Fussell and Davies gained the upper hand and gave a solid platform for the backs. Pressure from the thirds forced Hope to concede a penalty and Charles's effort drifted just wide. After ten minutes a series of missed tackles and some poor organisation saw Hope launch a sweeping move from their own half. They attacked up the right hand side, the move was stopped by some big hits from the centres Nichols and Edge, but Hope were able to recycle and they found acres of space in front of them and scored under the posts.
From the kick off Buxton conceded a soft score and suddenly found themselves 14 – 0 a drift. This was the signal to dig deep. Using their superiority in the pack the Thirds set up a series of driving mauls capitalising on the outstanding line-out work of Dilworth. Deep in the Hope 22, Preece flicked the ball wide and Edge crashed through a couple of tackles to be driven to the line by Charles and Rose. It looked as if he had grounded the ball but the referee was unsighted. From the resulting scrum Buxton made mincemeat of the Hope effort and all they could do was to collapse the scrum. Hope managed to work their way out of their twenty two but the relief was temporary. Another five metre scrum, another Hope scrum destroyed and this time Chapman made sure of the touch down and Buxton were back in the game.
The second half was always going to be tough as Buxton had to play up the slope and things looked grim as after five minutes Hope scored and converted after another well worked back move. Rather than demoralising the thirds,this acted as a spur. With the Hope scrum gaining some parity with the introduction of fresh legs, Buxton had to dig deep. Allen took responsibility and with Davies drove into the heart of the defence. Charles ,Rose and Macdonald supported well, and Preece was able to get good second phase ball. Bennison made a series of half breaks, and Nichol was almost put away in the centre. The support play and defensive alignment was beginning to pay dividends. The ever improving Ritchie tackled his heart out and working with Gardin and Pollit the back three provided a solid defensive blanket.
A lose kick from Hope gave Gardin a chance to counter-attack . He flew down the wing and crashed into the last line of defence just being bundled into touch.
A series of moves took Buxton into the Hope half, Bennsion spotted a half chance and scorched down the wing to score in the corner. Back in the game and with a sniff of victory, the thirds upped their effort. Chapman came close to scoring and as the move continued first Edge then Davies drove for the line. The Hope defence was creaking and a scrum ten metres from their line set up a great position for Buxton. The referee warded the scrum to Buxton only to reverse it and yellow card a Buxton player for back chat. Buxton continued to batter away but time and Buxton's hopes ran out.


Buxton were:
MacDonald, Fussell, Davies, Dilworth, Rose, Allen, Chapman, Charles, Preece, Bennison, Ritchie, Nichols, Edge, Pollit, Gardin.

Training on Tuesday's up at Sunnyfield at 6.45pm.

Apres Match

There was no Fuck up of the day, so it will be carried over to next week and the forefeit doubled.

Man of the Match was Seth. He and Gaz got an even number of votes but Seth won the drink off. A tasty little number lovingly created and crafted by Steve Edge and the Barmaid at the Peaks hotel. He was so long getting it mind you I'm not sure that that was all he was doing.