Consett 41-26 Bees

This rather disappointing performance from the Bees had all the hallmarks of a game being played at the end of the eason where one side, Consett, still has everything to play for, while the other, The Bees, are comfortably in mid table with nothing specifically to play for as, barring some freakish results, the club can neither go up or down from North One East for next season.

There remain five games on the Bees schedule after this one, and those games may serve as a spring board to next season as coaches,Anthony Posa and Hugh Gumbs weigh up their playing resources for next term. The Bees showed they can still get the ball over the whitewash, collecting a sixteenth bonus point in 21 games for scoring four or more tries and when debutant Marcus Law added his name to the scoresheet in the 70th minute he became the 22nd different player to score a try for the Bees from the 36 players who have played in the Fist XV this season.
Unfortunately for the Bees, Law's try was part of a late rally which was far too late to have any real impact on the result as the home side had been able to gallop away to a 34 points to 5 advantage by the 56th minute. a yellow card awarded against a home player around the hour mark seemed to be the catalyst for the Bees revival as Mat Cochrane and skipper Tom Booth also crossed for tries in the final ten minutes. Lance Taylor slotted a couple of conversions in that period, despite sporting a slightly reconfigured nose, having had to leave the field for attention in the 24th minute for attention to his face after a collision.
Alex Keeton was another Bees player who received a blow in the face in the first half, and the front rower's broken nose may be severe enough to put him out of this week's upcoming fixture against Morley. Keeton left the contest in the 12th minute but the home side were already 10 points to the good by that stage, having crossed first in the 8th minute via Liam Cosgrove. Dougie Patterson improved that score with a conversion and then slotted a penalty to bring up ten points on the scoreboard almost as Keeton was leaving the field.
from a Bees perspective, some semblance of order was restored in the 21st minute as Ryan Wederell got over the whitewash but Taylor could not add the extras, but as soon as Consett got the ball back from the kick off they were celebrating a score at the Bees end of the field as Chris Gray dotted down.

The Bees pack were struggling to get going and were definitely second best in the tight exchanges. Consett seemed to have established a much steadier platform in their forwards and were desevedly 17 points in front at 22-5 at half time.

The same pattern continued after the restart and the home side soon added two further scores, one converted by Patterson, to establish a 34 points to 5 advantage. The Bees have launched some epic comebacks in recent seasons, but with 24 minutes left on the clock, the 29 point advantage to the home side looked to be too much of a hill to climb. So it proved to be, as the visitors had the better of the final stages and restored some pride with three tries in the final ten minutes.

Nick Patterson