Park were the stronger side early on and took the lead on 11 minutes when hooker Charlie Piper went over from a catch-and-drive move following a penalty. Harry Leonard converted for 7-0.

Mowden came back through a try from hooker Simon Uzokwe after a series of pick and drives battered the visiting defence. Fly half Josh Bragman converted to level the scores.

Park regained the lead on 34 minutes with a Leonard penalty, after Mowden prop Darren Fearn was yellow-carded for an offence right under the referee’s nose.


Reach for the stars

Park got the try they had been threatening almost on the half-time whistle when Hugo Ellis forced his way over, Leonard converting for a 17-7 lead at the interval.

In the second half, Leonard soon extended Park’s lead with an early penalty. Two excellent sides then tested each other’s defences.

Mowden raised their game in the last 15 minutes and really challenged the visitors’ resolve. Winger Adam Ragwan got a try in the corner with 14 minutes to go, closing the gap to 8 points.

Park’s defence was superbly organised, even when reduced to 14 men following a yellow card for a technical offence. In the very last minute of added time, Mowden were awarded a penalty, and opted to kick for goal to at least claim the losing bonus point. The kick bounced back into play off the far post and in the ensuing melee Mowden winger Jamie Barnard got over, Bragman’s conversion bringing Mowden within a point.

Surprisingly, there was time to re-start, but Park soon tackled a Mowden man into touch to bring the final whistle.

Park: Robinson; Kohler, Henderson, Grove, Watkins; Leonard; Gash; Lilley, Piper, Maguire; Inglis, Spivey; Frampton, Hudson, Ellis.
Bench: Vaughan-Edwards, Nwakor, Wade, Weir, Broadbent.
Park scorers: Piper (T), Ellis (T), Leonard (2P, 2C)

Park Coach, Scott Sneddon, said, “We battled hard against a tough DMP side. Mowden Park is a tough place to go and they are a very physical team. Credit to our forwards who dominated scrum time. If we had controlled more lineouts then we could have been in a better position at half time.

“We made some costly errors which helped DMP get back into the game but we defended our line well in the last quarter to ensure we got the 4 points”.

Looking forward to next Saturday’s home match (Kick off 3:00 PM) he added, “Loughborough next week will be a tough challenge, we know the students bring energy for 80 minutes so we'll have to keep our accuracy high for the whole game.

“We set ourselves some targets at the beginning of January and in order to hit those then we need to make sure we perform well this weekend”.

Charlie Addiman

Images: David Whittam

January 23, 2017