Whitchurch 14 vs Douglas (IOM) 41

Bad Day at the Office for Reds 

The score gives a wrong impression of the game but suffice to say that 

The Shropshire men made far too many mistakes and wrong decisions. 

Hope was high after the wonderful display last week against Crewe and Nantwich and in the first ten minutes it looked as if that form had continued but hat soon changed. Whitchurch began to make simple errors and were behind in the eleventh minute to a penalty. That soon doubled after another penalty was given for a high tackle. Douglas gained the confidence that was being lost by the home side and they let in a try halfway through the first half. The conversion was quickly followed by another penalty and the islanders were sailing at Nil to sixteen. The Edgeley Park boys woke up and applied pressure to the opponents line and after half an hour broke through with Robbie Leighton going over and converting his own try. A fight back looked on the cards but it was Douglas who scored the next try to close the first half ahead by 14 points. 

         Whitchurch started the second half with much more purpose but could not cross the line until the 60th minute when Teddy Ravenscroft finished off a good backs move to score wide out. A fine conversion by Leighton meant that there was only a score between the two sides and the reds seemed to be on top. Douglas defended valiantly and suddenly the home side became an undisciplined rabble throwing out wild passes galore resulting in the visitors picking up loose balls, misguided passes and a host of high tackles to allow their opponents to pick up and run through to score three tries and a conversion. The final humiliation gifted them a penalty in the 83rd minute and they took it to rise their score over the forty point mark. 

         Whitchurch were left shell shocked and have to pick themselves up for the rearranged visit of Altrincham and Kersal next week.