Newark avoided relegation

Newark Rugby
Midlands One East
Newark 16 Kettering 54

Newark avoided relegation from Midlands One East thanks to other results after they were outplayed by a fast and well organised Kettering team at Kelham Road.

A fraught afternoon ended in a nervous wait in the clubhouse before survival was confirmed for Chris Tate’s team.

Once all the scores had been registered, league officials confirmed Loughborough, Spalding and Market Bosworth were set to be relegated.

Newark, who were level on 43 league points alongside Bosworth, finished 11th thanks to winning seven games to the Leicestershire’s club’s six.

A measure of how close Newark came to a relegation place can be measured by Bosworth only losing 28-25 to Towcestrians in the last round of games.
The tension of the after-match added to the disappointment of the afternoon where Kettering, who Newark had defeated 15-8 in the opening game of the season, scored eight tries to two.

Both Newark’s scores came from lock Jon Evans in a 10-minute period of the second half. By the time the home pack gained a hold on the game, Kettering were leading 40-6, Matt Cox having kicked two first-half penalties amid four tries by the visitors.

Newark finish their senior season next Sunday at Worksop in the final of the NLD Shield, against Glossop, kick off 3pm. This is an all pay game for spectators of £2 per person.

Scoring sequence: 5 mins, 3-0 Newark Cox pen; 24 mins, 3-7 Kettering try & con; 31 mins, 3-12 Kettering try; 33 mins, 3-19 Kettering try & con; 39 mins, 6-19 Newark Cox pen; 40 mins, 6-26 Kettering try & con; 43 mins, 6-33 Kettering try & con; 49 mins, 6-40 Kettering try & con; 59 mins, 11-40 Newark try Evans; 62 mins, 16-40 Newark try Evans; 75 mins, 16-47 Kettering try & con; 80 mins, 16-54 Kettering try & con.

Team: Mark Byrom; Tate, Collishaw, Cox, Galinski; Andrews, Matt Clark; Tinsley, Tomlinson, Gray, Primett, Evans, May, Clark, Price. Subs: Barnsdale, Webster, Hill.
Tries: Evans (2). Penalty goals: Cox (2).

Rob Wildman