Otley 36

Sedgley Park 3

SEDGLEY Park, whose player coach Tim Fourie has stuffed his side with fellow South Africans, six so far with another second row expected this week, plus three new Zealanders and a lone Norwegian second row as well as former Otley No 6 Jon Skurr, have had an up and down season.

They lost their first five games but have shown some improvement which has lifted them from the relegation battle.

They came to Cross Green with hopes, perhaps not very high, of avenging a 28-8 defeat at their euphemistically named Park Lane ground in the suburbs of Manchester back in September.

They caught Otley in no mood to loiter and by the 33rd minute they were 22-3 down and to all intents and purposes the game was over with the bonus point in the hands of the hosts.

The scoreline was not due to their failings. They looked quite useful at the start as they deprived Otley of possession for the opening minutes but the first scrum gave them a vision of what was to come as they were catapulted backwards.

So began a brilliant 40 minutes of top class football which pro-duced five wonderful tries. It would be a brave person who would nominate a Man-of-the-Match.

Otley swung the ball wide from that first scrum and Park were caught off-side and Dave Scully was not allowed ten metres from his tap, so the ball went into touch.

The ball was once again sent swiftly across the field. A second penalty had Otley close and Jason Oakes opened the scoring from the drive for Simon Binns to convert.

Lowering the scrum on the visitors' five metre line cost Otley an-other chance. They continued to press and on 18 minutes Wasaile Sovatabua fielded a relieving kick to charge back and as ever made inroads, this time handing on to his support.

Accurate passing saw the ball cross to Kyle Dench on the opposite wing and his return pass to Neil Taylor had the centre over in the corner.

Sedgley Park had their brief moment of glory when Arno De Jager, a tubby but strong running full-back who was their greatest threat, broke through after fielding a kick ahead to find Richard Welding on his shoulder.

The winger got within ten metres before being stopped but they came away with a penalty from fly half Blair Feeney when Otley went off-side.

Otley were now really buzzing. A session of rucking and driving took them forward and Welding was tackled into touch fielding Scully's chip ahead. The initial drive was held so the ball went out to Binns who turned it back into the hands of Sovatabua who took two defenders over with him in the corner.

The re-start was returned to touch with interest by Binns and a scrum given. When the throw was adjudged not straight Scully broke through the front of the broken line to make ground before feeding Dench, who rounded his opposite number before judging a little kick over the full back to perfection and won the race for the touchdown.

Sovatabua was back in the picture when he came inside following a line-out on his wing to take an inside pass from Binns and just power his way over near the posts to set up an easy conversion to end a most productive first-half.

Both sides employed all their replacements but there was no drop in the intensity or determination. Some of the tackling was breathtaking but error inducing and the second period produced just a solitary score, a little gem from Andy Brown round the blind side of a scrum while Fourie was serving ten minutes in the bin.

This was awarded by his fellow countryman Mr Bruce Robertson, who must have felt quite at home and was arguably the best official seen at Cross Green this season.

Pertemps Bees, who caught Otley on a bad day at Birmingham, winning 32-19, are Saturday's visitors to Cross Green and they sit six points behind Otley in the league table.

This will be the last home game for six weeks as there are two blank Saturdays on International days, a third being filled with a trip to Exeter for a postponed game.

Sedgley Park 14

Otley Saracens 32

SARACENS returned to second team championship fixtures after a four week gap with a trip to Park Lane hoping to gain revenge for a narrow defeat at Cross Green earlier in the season.

It did not look likely when Park made the early running and under pressure Saracens made silly mistakes and the home side took the lead with a converted try.

Otley were struggling to build any momentum but a great scrum saw Alex Thompson make a break but he was penalised for not releasing. Just when it appeared that Saracens were settling Rob Whatmuff was injured and in the re-shuffle Stewart Wilson moved to nine with Alex Thompson at 10 and Simon Hawkins at 12. Richard Leighton came on at full back.

Against the run of play Otley scored when Simon Hawkins gathered a kick and decided to run it out of defence.

The ball was moved quickly to Dan Nulty who showed a clean pair of heels to the Park cover for a superb try.

Park came back with some power play that created room for their full back and a converted try made it 14-5 at half-time.

John Richards came on for Ben Fear and there were signs that Otley were starting to play disciplined rugby but neither side could gain the upper hand. It was 20 minutes before the scoreboard was troubled again, with Saracens attacking it looked as though Park had full cover but Will Darby came on the angle to take the inside pass and race through to the posts, Alex Thompson converting.

This seemed the impetus they needed and it was Park's turn to come under pressure and they conceded penalties as they tried to stop a now rampant Saracens.

Alex Thompson converted two to give Otley the lead. This was quickly stretched from a catch and drive by the pack, Phil Edge claiming the try and Alex Thompson adding the conversion.

In the closing minutes Park went all out for a score but Dan Nulty anticipated a long miss-pass and intercepted to race the length of the field, Alex Thompson again converted to put the seal on a much improved team performance.

Otley Viscounts 19

West Park 14

VISCOUNTS were short due to injuries and work commitments but they recruited two players from Old Otliensians, who had their game cancelled, and an evenly contested game resulted.

Richard Guest and Adam Hayward scored tries in the first-half as Viscounts trailed 12-14.

In a closely fought second-half Viscounts just snatched a narrow win with a Richard Guest try. Skipper Jamie Chappell kicked two conversions.