Pressure was starting to mount on the Chapel 1st team as they were yet to notch up a win so far this season. In the lead up to the 1st game of the season everyone agreed this was a fantastic opportunity to finally get rid of some rustiness and impress. Some key players were missing which gave a great opportunity for some new players to step up and make the shirt their own, in-particular, Alex Bardsley at second row Haydon Tunney in the centres.
The sun was shining on a glorious day in Holmes Chapel, and the boys in blue started strongly although not seeing much ball, they defended with ferocity and knocked the Didsbury runners back. When Chapel did get the ball, they instantly went on the attack and Jack Cottam made a break on the outside before executing a neat kick back inside for David Steer to run onto and place the ball over the line, Andy Davies converted 7-0.
Chapel picked up the tempo again following on from this score and were rewarded with a penalty that Any Davies duly slotted in-between the posts to make the score 10-0. The dominance wasn’t to last however as some strong carrying by the Didsbury pack let to them carrying the ball over the line for their first score, they successfully made the conversion, 10-7.
Didsbury then lost a player to the sin bin and Holmes Chapel made no errors in capitalising, first Luke Cheetham scored an extremely memorable try, then Luke Cheetham made a clean break almost straight away following the kick off, before off-loading expertly to a fully sprinting Joe Baskerville, who strolled in underneath the posts, Andy Davies slotted the conversion to make the score 22-7.
Following a turnover in the middle of the pitch, Andy Davies shipped the ball right to Jack Cottam, who popped the ball to David Steer who made a clean break. Skipper Tom Chambers was supporting on the inside and did well to collect the ball and pound forwards past the defence. Tom unfortunately fell just short, however he was able to off-load from the floor back to David Steer who went on to score in the corner, 27-7.
Chapel then knew a job was on to kill off the rest of the match. A penalty from Andy Davies helped keep the scoreboard ticking over, however Didsbury scored a nice try following a chip and chase from their number 14, they converted to keep the pressure on. In the last moments of the game, the pack made some big carries and got close to the line, prolific finisher Will Mitchell then managed to drive over the line to secure the win.
Final score 35-14.
Man of the match went to Haydon Tunney who had an outstanding all round performance. Other notable performances included Ally Lightfoot and Conor Gavin.