Worksop Rugby Club

Worksop 7 - 24 Mellish

Worksop always knew this was going to be a hard fixture against Mellish another Notts club which finished high up in this same league last season, and up until last week were topping the table. What made things worse for the home side was no less than six positional changes within the squad, through work commitments and injuries. I bet Captain Kevin McGuire is wondering when his luck is going to change and he can get the consistency which was much to do with the team’s success last season.

Worksop won the toss and opted to play towards the clubhouse on what turned out to be a wonderful sunny autumn afternoon. Receiving the ball they were not long in running at the opposition and getting into Mellish’s half, but the fly half from the visitors had a good set of hands and released his back line in what must have been two to three good attacks from Mellish. Only bad passing and silly mistakes stopped them capitalising on which appeared to be a stronger backline. Luckily for Worksop the same fly half had a nightmare with his positional kicking, and was miles away from finding touch and even further away with a penalty attempt which the visitors had won through Worksop being off-side at the ruck.

Meet 1.30pm, K.O. 3.00pm

Alan Hopkinson, Steve Dickinson, Richard Hutton, Andy Slater, Tim Palmer, Kev McGuire, Lee Elliott, Gaz Truckle, Joel Candy, Andy Waddell, Liam Beard, Nick Kay, Danny Bowskill, Matt Nunn, Russell Billam, Wayne Betts, Zeke Ebbs, Simon Colton.

Meet 12.45pm, K.O. 3.00pm

Team to be selected from;

Neil Hopkinson, Nigel Peach, Stuart Waddell, John Williams, Nathan Parry, Nathan Spilane, Mick McKernan, Ian Slater, Colin Barnett, Aaron Bainbridge, Darren Sheppard, Zeke Ebbs, Keith Dunstan, Andy Slater, Mike Barnett, Luke Middleton, Dave Piddington, Darren Norton, Dave Bennett, Matt Hardy, G Smith, M Moss, Louis Robinson, Dean Binder, Ian Evans.

Ashby 19 - 10 Worksop

Worksop travelled to Ashby De la Zouch for their third League fixture and second away game. Sitting three places above the bottom of the league table with one win and one lose, this might have been the time for a first win away from home, with Ashby losing last week they may have lost that bit of confidence and Worksop could just be the team to take advantage.

Losing the toss Ashby gave Worksop the strong wind advantage in the first period, but despite this Worksop did not really capitalise and it was not long before the hosts were camped in the visitors 22 yard area. The Ashby pack seemed stronger than the Worksop pack and were causing issues within the set piece scrummage with the scrum wheeling, and being generally unsettled, from such a scrum Ashby quickly passed the ball along their backs where they had created an overlap and their winger scored in the corner for their first points of the half. Unconverted Worksop trailed 5 points to nil and 15 mins.