Sat 7 Jan 2023
North Dorset welcomed Walcot to Slaughtergate hoping to reverse their defeat at Walcot earlier in the season but first had to contend with a gale blowing down the pitch and torrential rain and hail in the 2nd half. Walcot came out of the blocks with serious intention ably led by their standoff`s astute kicking with the gale in his favour. North lost a lineout on their own line and
were punished with an unconverted try in the corner (0-5), soon followed by another (0-12). This seemed to be the wake up call N. Dorset needed and after a period of sustained pressure
they scored through Adam Trevis (5-12). Walcot continued to take full advantage of the windand the boot and ran in 2 more unconverted tries courtesy of their Wings bringing the halftime score to 5-24.
The 2nd half began with N. Dorset now having the wind advantage but Walcot with yet more careful kicking scored again (5-29). By this stage N Dorset had total control of the scrums
pushing Walcot off the ball regularly but this advantage was lost to the home side when the visitors lost two front row players to injury and the game continued with uncontested scrums.
Despite this N. Dorset continued to attack and Sam Trevis scored an unconverted try (10-29) Walcot were still dangerous despite playing with 14 but North now seemed to mean business
and Will Johnson scored, Rylie Lewis converted (17-29) and time ran out. Considering the conditions there was a large crowd of supporters - most of whom stayed to the end in the
pouring rain.
Apologies from the writer for any inaccuracies or omissions but by the end of the match both he and his notebook were a soggy mess.
BD
