Beverley played in the first round of the National Cup match against St Helen’s side Newton Storm.
The match was played for Jamie Branton, an influential Braves player who was seriously injured earlier in the week when he was hit by a car.
Harry Bulleyment made a massive impression on his first run breaking through the oncoming forwards with players hanging off his arms and Beverley were unlucky not to score.
It was Newton’s chance now to turn on the gas and it was only stopped through some text book tackles in the middle. Major pressure was now on Beverley’s line, Harvey Lazenby wrapped up the attacker superbly but a grubber kick hit a Braves leg and the ball bounced kindly for Newton and they opened the scoring.
From the kick Owen Harrison bravely picked up a loose ball to give possession back to Beverley and the Braves passed the ball along the line to find Kurt Pelham who powered over magnificently to give Beverley the break they so needed. They edged into the lead from a good kick from Keegan Bartlett.
Their confidence now growing, Beverley started to control the game. Bulleyment continued breaking through tackles along with team mate Callum Officer whose strength running and tackling increases week on week. Dylan Clifford received the ball and forced his way through a body of players and then accelerated leaving them standing for a powerful try. Newton Storm had their chances though and was very close to the line on a number of occasions.
From one of their drives the ball went back to Beverley and a tap on the twenty was given to Joe Wardill who ran wide and strong past players to the opposite end of the pitch and scored under the uprights. After a shaky start from Beverley this was a joy to watch as they gathered momentum. Playmakers Bartlett and James McGahey continued battling hard in the middle and James Sherwin tackles with ferocity on the wing. The Braves even managed to drag Newton’s biggest prop into touch as his was lining up to score much to the delight of the spectators and the whistle blew to signal half time 18 – 4.
The second half started off much as the first half had finished with Newton still working hard to turn the game around. Tom Woods made a hard low tackle with was executed with precision to bring the player down. The hard crunching tackles going in forced a knock on and Beverley capitalised by running the ball down the line to Wardill who ran through to score under the posts.
Super sub Danny Dawson came on fired up again and drove hard, side stepping through the opposition and this superb move directly resulted in the ball finding Harry Gray who sprinted past the Newton winger to score an excellent try. Big tackles were been made by Callam Bielby when he came on which sapped the energy from the opposition. Jay Black made an impact until he sadly got a bad knock to the head and had to come off. Clifford added to his tally with another storming run with players been brushed aside yet again to score.
Newton replied with a consolation try but Beverley were the clear winners today and finished off fighting just as hard right to the end with Lazenby very unlucky not to score and Harry Bell making a try saving tackle at the other end of the pitch. The whistle blew full time 34 – 10.
Man of the match voted by the opposition was Joe Wardill. An excellent display by the Beverley Braves – this one was for you Jamie.
