Aireborough lose their opening game but show signs of good things to come.

Aireborough ultimately paid for a poor first half with an opening day defeat at home to Northallerton at Nunroyd Park. Despite being roared on by a large crowd on the side-lines enjoying the beer and BBQ tent, Aireborough’s resurgence in the second half fell just short as a tiring Northallerton held on by their fingertips to avenge last season’s opening day defeat by Aireborough last season.

In glorious weather conditions, in stark contrast to the awful conditions of the opening game of last season, Aireborough’s warm up was fast, frantic and error-strewn with nerves showing and the adrenaline pumping. Calming words from Coach Si Davies and Captain Ollie Catherall did the job in the pre-match huddle and Aireborough were fastest out of the blocks, playing up the hill, forcing Northallerton back into their half with solid defence and strong running from both forwards and backs.

Nick Holdsworth was uncharacteristically wayward with a penalty attempt as Northallerton infringed at the breakdown before Aireborough took their foot off the gas and imploded in a crazy 20 minute spell which would ultimately cost Aire dear.

A speculative punt from the Northallerton fly-half forced Nick Holdsworth deep into the Aire ‘22m to field the ball back. The ball was well fielded but a sliced clearance whilst under pressure ended up going backwards, hitting the crossbar and, once he’d pushed an air-bound Matt Trevithick in the back, was pounced upon by a rather fortunate Northallerton player who dotted down to open the scoring – that kid should have bought a lottery ticket for Saturday nights draw! The conversion, in front of the sticks, was dispatched to give Northallerton a very undeserving 0-7 lead.

Northallerton were soon 0-10 up following an easy penalty which was slotted following Aireborough indiscretion as North began to turn the screw and Aireborough began to lose the ascendancy in midfield and the tackle. North’s bigger pack started taking control at the maul as Aireborough began wilting in the early autumn sun. Two converted tries following rolling mauls and pick-up-and-go’s gave Northallerton a 0-24 lead as the first half began drawing to a close and the visitors threatening a cricket score that would eventually befall local neighbours Baildon at home to Hemsworth (LOL).

Aireborough ended the first half strongly applying sustained pressure to the North line. The referee grew tired of the consistent Northallerton infringing in the red zone and they were reduced to 14 men with the sin-binning of the North flanker. Aireborough continued to push for a try, disregarding the easy 3 points on offer, and were eventually rewarded with new signing Tom Pendriss, as strong, sturdy and dependable as one of Ilkley Denture Clinic’s gum shields (www.ilkleydentureclinic.co.uk), crossing a whitewash so white that Ilkley Dental Care (www.Ilkleydentalcare.co.uk) must have done some cosmetic work on it. The conversion was wayward and the first half was brought to a close with a shriek of the referee’s whistle.

HT: Aireborough 5 v Northallerton 24

With encouraging words from Si Davies at the half-time break, Aireborough kicked off the second half looking to build on the momentum gained from the end of the first half. With Jonny Hiles giving his chocolate knee a well-deserved rest, the shortest ever line-out trio of Philip Shopland-Reed, Thomas Copsey and Richard Holmes were securing ball and the infamous Northallerton scrum was on its heels with introduction of Tim Baxter who, like a born again non-religious person who would use Lisa Bourne’s Humanist Naming Ceremonies (http://humanist.org.uk/lisabourne/) for all of his naming, wedding and funeral ceremonies; continues to defy science and the ageing process – like a backwards Benjamin Button.

Sorry, that was a shameless plug but I’m not a skilled enough scribe to work that link in seamlessly! Do take a moment to visit Lisa’s website though and see what it is all about.

Aireborough continued to dominate in the midfield and Northallerton were forced to cynically infringe (again) as Aire set up camp in the North ‘22m. A further sin-binning was soon forthcoming and Ollie Catherall reduced the arrears to 8-24 with a well struck penalty.

With the big North pack on its heels, a catch and drive from the North ‘22m resulted in Jonny Mackey taking a leaf from Dave ‘The Tank’ Greenwood’s playbook and scoring from an excellently worked catch-and-drive maul from Aireborough. Despite the missed conversion, it was game on with 20 minutes to go as Aireborough reduced the deficit to 13-24.

A further Ollie Catherall penalty with 10 minutes to go set up the game up nicely with Aireborough in the ascendancy. Aireborough were now just 16-24 down and in pretty much complete control of the match against a labouring Northallerton.

Aireborough huffed and puffed in the final 10 minutes but were struggling to break through again with dogged defence, unlucky bounces and occasional poor decision making or execution keeping Aire at bay. Kris Brook, with essentially the final play of the game, found space out-wide and summoned all reserves of his energy to beat his man and touch down in the far corner for a well taken try. Aireborough’s top try scorer for the past few years has helped this author out by only securing one player sponsor this season – Cannon Gardens who provide ‘the complete garden service’ and are focused on delivering high quality garden landscaping services tailored to your individual needs. The rushed conversion was missed and a knock-on at the restart from a to-remain-nameless Aire player resulted in the referee bringing the match to a close.

FT: Aireborough 21 v Northallerton 24.

Despite the defeat, the performance and work ethic in the second half gives Si Davies good reason to be optimistic for a successful first season as Head Coach of Aireborough. The hard work put in during pre-season was evidently, especially in the last 20 minutes, and the students of Sheffield Medics next week won’t know what has hit them if Aireborough can put in a full 80 minutes like the second half on Saturday.

Man of the Match: Rich Lister for his work around the park and in the scrums.
Rich is sponsored by our own Chris Clarke and his business Fire Investigations UK (https://www.fireinvestigationsuk.com/). Fire Investigations UK are the world's leading preliminary screening and fully comprehensive fire investigation reports to identify the origin, cause and development of any fire or non-terrorist explosion.

Brown Ale Moment: Stuart Wilson for being at least 20 minutes late to the pre-match team meeting. With time keeping this bad, this award may be a regular feature so well worth a player sponsor and guaranteed advertising each week! Please get in touch with Nick Jackson (nickjackson0@hotmail.co.uk) for details on sponsorship opportunities.