Mud Fest

What would we do without sub zero temperatures on a Sunday morning, Oh! that's right tucked up in our nice warm homes, but where's the fun in that what we want is to be standing on a touchline.
As parents we spend all our time telling our children to stop playing in the mud, unless its a bitter Cold Sunday morning then its all hell let loose.
It was Thirsk to welcome the Bees Colts to their ground for the return league game, with the Bees taking the first encounter by 2 points in a very evenly contested game, on that day we had a nice warm dry day at the Hive, with the weather postponing this fixture just before Christmas due to heavy rain, the forecast this time was sleet, snow, rain Oh yes and sub zero temps with the wind behind it was looking like another postponement, but the the forecast gave us a break yes wet, yes with a little sleet, and definitely cold!
The Thirsk pitch hadn't taken a beating from the weather so game on, but the same couldn't be said for after the game the pitch was a mud bath, which made for a testing time for both teams which looked like it would come down to handling errors, nether side wanting to give any ground.
Thirsk seem to hit the ground running, but the Bees have never been known to to have a fast start to any of their games this season but seem to easy their way into a match, at the frustration of the coaching staff, Thirsk had the Bees pinned in their 22 for what seem the whole of the first half and having the breeze at there back, never really allowed the bees to work any form of lick an chase as the ball would be sent back, Thirsk opened their account with a penalty kick for not rolling away at the ruck, and this is something the ref was very keen on blowing up for through out the game.
The bees had a spell in Thirsk's half with the forward working well with close ball in hand the Bees was rewarded with a try from Mike Joannides using his big frame and strength to go low and over for the score.for the best part of the first half the game was played in the middle of the pitch that was the was each team worked at not letting the other through both defenses work hard today with the conditions, it was a really good arm wrestle between the two sets of forwards, once again the Bees giving Thirsk the opportunity to take more points from the with another penalty at the breakdown to take the lead again.
More of the same for the second half and with the condition of the pitch getting worse the more it was played on I dont think either teams back line really saw much of the ball, I would say the speed in the Bees back line with the like of Matthew Nixon playing at full back this week running at full tilt and size would make the best of any team very hard to stop with Matty running at Thirsk from Deep made ground to gift a good platform to which the forwards to work from, another speedster Connor Capper was up so fast on thisks Full back when the Bees had cleared their lines stopped Thirsk attacked in the mud and a good follow up with the forwards allowed them to work the ball down to Thirsk try line and man mountain and Captain Byron Finn picking from the base of the ruck and powered his way over to give his team the lead back with him also converting but could of had a hatrick if not to have 2 tow tries disallowed perfectly good score but the ref deemed not to agree, this was never going to be a high scoring game due to conditions but the brave of hearts with the defense would come through to take the win. that would be the Bees defense that just had a little more in its tank than Thirsk but for the Conditions a really good game to watch.