League campaign starts well for Aldridge

We got our league campaign off to a cracking start with this comprehensive victory over visitors Whittington. The initial skirmishes appeared even but after twelve minutes, a try from winger Dan McKenna started the scoreboard ticking over and it continued to do so repetitively throughout the rest of the encounter. Our forwards had the upper-hand winning a stream of possession in all departments and with No 10 Adam Reed, orchestrating things at the back, there were plenty of opportunities for the three-quarters to show off their paces. At twenty minutes, a back row move initiated by No 8 Chris Balmforth, “Barney” put Alex Holding in the clear and over between the posts and in the final five minutes of the half two fine pieces of individual running produced tries respectively for Louis Durrant, in the centre, and Adam, who clinched the bonus try right at the break.

Twenty-eight points adrift, the Whittington challenge was now effectively over and their plight wasn’t helped much by a mounting injury count as we took advantage and began to dictate proceedings. Twelve minutes in and our fifth try was provided by Russell Hamilton, playing at flanker, who produced a long range solo darting run to score under the posts and a similar individualistic effort fashioned a second score for Adam Reed. Russell then reproduced his earlier run cutting through a feeble defence but this time flipping the ball into the path of swiftly following-up No 8 sub Ashley Shingler, who was the man to cross. Louis Durrant grabbed his second try right at the end, exploiting the increasingly open spaces to complete the scoring. Full back Alex Yates also had a good afternoon with the boot – converting seven of the eight tries scored. Final tally – Aldridge 54 points – Whittington 0 points