Caldy claimed a home victory for the first time in four games by beating Darlington Mowden Park in a game where the weather played a major factor against two well matched sides to remain in seventh place in National 1.
The visitors started the brighter of the two sides playing with the wind in their favour, they pressured the Caldy try line right from the kick off and it looked as though Caldy were in for a tough afternoon when Jacob Brady crossed after great interchange play in the eighth minute to give Park a deserved lead.
The game became tight and scrappy with both sides finding it difficult to get into their rhythm fighting both resolute defences and the wind and driving rain until on the half hour mark when a great break from centre and Man of the Match Lewis Barker saw Luke Hibberd run in a fantastic try to bring the scores level at the half time break.
The conditions in the second half were better allowing for a successful kicking game alongside some poor tackling that saw Darlington’s Franco Lamanna and Joe Craggs sent to the sin bin along with Caldy’s Rhys Hayes.
It was Caldy that played better with Ben Jones taking full advantage of being able to kick into the wind on 54 and 77 minutes, the later bringing great cheers from the bank after a much deserved and hard fought victory. This was a first win over Mowden Park for Caldy home or away since 1974 when the club were on tour of the North East.
Caldy will be looking to build on this victory when they travel down to London to face Rosslyn Park. The Richmond based team currently sit fourth, however victory for the Ravers would see them overtake their hosts at the midway point of the season.
