This week Ripon 2xv travelled south to play Bradford and Bingley (Bees) in another merit league fixture. With a huge number of players not available across the club the 2xv could only get 16 players. Brought into the side were Jonny Stores-dale, Simon Williamson, Mark Hooley and Paul Bake who was making his 2xv debut (afraid to say guys you cant play for the 3s anymore!). Lost to the 1xv were Mark Sadler, Craig Wolloms and Elliot Fearn.

Ripon chose ends and received the kick off on a suprisingley good pitch (especially after the flooding). Simon Williamson tried to catch the ball, but unluckily spilled it forward. From the resulting scrum Bees made their way up the pitch and on 3 minutes a good attacking move was started by the home sides live wire 10 who shipped the ball quickly down the backs. Weak tackling by Ripon allowed the winger to score in the corner. 5-0

On 10 minutes the same thing happened and once again the home side brushed off some suspect tackling to again score out wide. Andrew Williamson gave his side some harsh words as everyone looked shell shocked. At this point Bees had only been in the Ripon half twice and scored on both occasions. 10 - 0

Ripon now started to play with a bit more purpose, with the returning Matthew Clough making some good runs as well as appearing with the ball from the oppositions mauls! A penalty was then rewarded in from of the posts which Patrick Whitaker converted. 10 - 3.

Jack Stiddard then had to come off with a dead leg (or sand in his butt cheeks!). So after a quick reshuffle veteran Mark Hooley went into the centres and Craig Sykes to the back row (happy now Craig!). Ripon were now knocking on the door and after a good move by the backs, Davin Jones smashed his way through the defensive line to score under the posts. The try was converted making the score 10 - 10.

Halftime

The second half started strongly for Ripon with Andrew Williamson and Matthew Clough making some bulldozing runs. The backs looked sharp with Jason Bell running well and Davin Jones smashing everything in front of him. Bees only incursion into the Ripon half resulted in the number 10 once again bamboozling the away side with his crazy legs and setting up a cracking try near the posts. 17-15 with 15 minutes to go.

Again Ripon pushed Bees back towards their line gaining a penalty near the 22. A kick to the corner resulted in a good line out take from Andrew Williamson. The maul was set up and Bees had no answer with Jack Stiddard (who had now got the sand out of his orifice) scoring the try. The conversion was missed. 17 - 15.

With 3 minutes left Ripon pushed hard for the win. However even with Ripon's pack taking a scrum against the head no real pressure could be exerted on the home side. A knock on ended the game.

FT 17 -15

Even though we gained a bonus point, this game was there to be won. It was pleasing to see the 3xv players stepping up and not looking out of place. Next week the 2xv are playing Castleford 2xv at home while the 3xv are playing the Castleford 3xv away. Lets not have a repeat of this week. So dust off your boots and strap up those injuries and get playing lads!!

Thanks to Bradford and Bingley for a great game and the excellent hospitality that they showed Ripon throughout the game and in the bar afterwards. Good luck for the rest of the season and well done in recovering so quickly from the devastating floods.

MOM - Davin Jones

DOD - Paul Bake (Great 10 minutes!)