A FRENZIED FINISH

REPORT WRITTEN BY ROB WILDMAN

Saturday, October 25
Midlands One East
Newark 33 Paviors 32

Newark recorded their second win of the season by overhauling Nottinghamshire rivals Paviors in the final minutes of a tense derby which featured nine tries.
It was Newark’s first win since the opening league weekend when they won at the death in similar circumstances against Huntingdon.
Since then Newark have endured six successive defeats so Saturday’s heroics, in a win by five tries to four, was a mighty relief to Captain Matt Clark and his team.
A big positive amid the struggles has been the form of Newark’s emerging players. And once again they were led by wing Ben Usher who continued his fine season by contributing three of the five tries.
Usher’s final try came in the closing stages when he touched down in the corner to finish off a blindside move off a scrum. The score gave Newark the lead for the first time in a match where Paviors led from the early stages.
Up front, James Price, switching between back row and prop this season, stood up well in the forward exchanges alongside Rob Dunning in the front row while veteran Shaun May led the way in a rare full 80 minutes.
Newark’s vocal support must have feared another poor start by their men would end in defeat, Paviors scoring twice in the opening minutes to lead 12-0.
However, the first of Usher’s three tries put Newark back into the match helped by Paviors having a man sin binned.
This good work was spoiled when Newark gave away possession at the re-start which led to a Paviors penalty. That put the visitors 15-5 up and another three- pointer stretched the advantage further to 18-5.
A penalty by Clark just before the interval gave Newark heart going into the interval and a change of tactics for the second half.
Newark decided to attack the visitors outwide after the interval and the ploy gave centre Aloesi Waqalevu the opportunity to charge over for his team’s second try.
A topsy-turvy half followed with Paviors’ third try, which was converted, putting the visitors 25-13 up and prompting thoughts of victory.
To the credit of Newark they kept playing and a counter-attack from full-back Andy Hill engineered an opening for Usher to finish off.
That try put Newark 18-25 behind and a penalty from Chris Tate, following the sin binning of Paviors’ former Newark captain Ed Collishaw for a ruck offence, cut the margin by a further three points.
At 21-25 a nervous finale looked in prospect, but Paviors increased their lead when a Newark counter broke down to help the visitors to a fourth try.
Newark were now 32-21 down and facing defeat. They needed a frenzied finish and they produced one.
First a period of pressure brought a try for Tate, which the fly half converted, following a break by the ever dangerous James Challenger, before Usher grabbed his third when Clark and May set up an attack on the blindside.
Newark now head for bottom-placed Spalding next Saturday, kick off 2.15pm, hoping to add to the heroics of this win.
Scoring sequence: 0-5 Paviors try, 0-12 Paviors try & con, 5-12 Newark try Usher, 5-15 Paviors pen, 5-18 Paviors pen, 8-18 Newark pen Clark, half-time; 13-18 Waqalevu try, 13-25 Paviors try & con, 18-25 Usher try, 21-25 Tate pen, 21-32 Paviors try & con, 28-32 Newark try Tate & con, 33-32 Usher try.

Tries: Usher (3), Waqalevu, Tate.
Conversion: Tate.
Penalty goals: Clark, Tate.
Team: Hill; Usher, Challenger, Waqalevu, Stark; Tate, Clark (capt); Dunning, Tomlinson, Price, Downing, Williams, Tatham, Bartsch, May.
Subs: Barnsdale, Priestley, Galinski.

Rob Wildman