Two depleted sides due to the holidays met on Wednesday night as the Beverley Braves under 9’s took on Cottingham Tigers at Longcroft.
To ensure everyone got as much game time as possible three Braves players volunteered to play for the Tigers in each half, thanks therefore go to Matthew Madin, Will Sandford, and Oliver Gresswell who lined up with the Tigers in the first half and Matthew Hutchinson, William Kirkup and Tom Newton in the second half.
All six boys gave a great effort in both defence and attack whether playing for the Braves or as guests of the Tigers, in fact Kirkup’s no nonsense defence and strong running not only saw him go very close to his first try but also earned him the man of the match award.
The Tigers started well scoring first after the Braves had gone close at the other end, Oliver Loney was the first to get on the score sheet for the Braves with the first of two tries coming from a typical bulldozing run.
The Tigers went 2-1 up after good work from their forwards before the trademark run around between Dylan English and Ryan Deane opened a huge gap for English to score. The run around was executed twice more with equal success, Deane holding on to the ball to race through and score and then English getting over again to give Beverley a 4-2 half-time lead.
Cottingham were straight out of the traps on the re-start with a score to close the gap to just one try and this spurred Beverley back in to life, Thomas Cohen made good yards up the middle and William Snook was unlucky not to score after several weaving runs.
A dummy by Marcus Walker caught the Cottingham defence out and he raced 40 yards to score before two quick fire tries had the Tigers back on equal terms.
Straight from the re-start it was Loney’s turn to race away and touchdown and then the result was put beyond doubt when Walker seized upon a loose ball to crash over. Final score Beverley Braves 7, Cottingham Tigers 5.
