The problem was allegedly caused by the Stockport fixture secretary who swapped scheduled games, without telling his own club, and then went on holiday!

Our under 15 team travelled to Stockport and back again before meeting opponents who had been patiently waiting at Park Lane for an hour. Not the ideal preparation for Sedgley, and Stockport scored inside the first minute - tackle, ruck, quick hands, left corner – a good try. We were going to get stuffed!

Actually…..no, we weren’t. The game was into its final quarter before the next score. Stockport had had most of the ball as the SP scrum struggled, but our defence was excellent and the visitors were constantly harried into mistakes.

The crucial try came from a scrum against the head, and Stockport then scored a third, running back a Sedgley kick, a lovely bit of individual skill, this one.

Park’s persistence deserved some reward, and they had the last word with a score by number 8 Shaun Wilson. Full-back Nathan Bird had an impressive game. Final score: 5-15.

SP under 13s played away against a strong and well organised Stockport  team and narrowly lost 19-24.

The team showed great defensive qualities but were beaten by a full-size pitch which is still a very new experience to these lads. Tries were scored by Oliver Carroll (2) and Dean Leech, plus two Joe Egan conversions.

Slick passing again rewarded Sedgley with scoring opportunities but Stockport’s defence ensured a very hard and close fought game. A penalty, awarded for dissent when Park were pressing five metres from the line, proved costly.

Our under 14s arrived at Stockport, eventually, and they provided the day’s only SP win, 24-5.

A hard fought game was closer than the final score suggests, due mostly to strong scrummaging by the Stockport forwards, the most organised our boys have faced.

The score at half time was 12- 5, with tries by Sam Horrocks and Jack Faulkner. In the second half, following the coaches requesting the team to be more dynamic around the ruck, Sedgley controlled the game more, with further tries by Jack Faulkner and Dominic Barrow. James Wharmby converted 2 of the 4 tries.

Overall this was an improvement on last week’s 5-point defeat at Rochdale, better tackling and quicker release of the ball to enable good passing movements.

Also at Stockport, our under 16s had a couple of players caught up in the transport muddle, and they too were caught cold, having to kick off without proper preparation; 0-12 down inside 10 minutes.

Sedgley came back into the game, with tries by captain Richard Newman and centre Jonathan Marr; neither was converted because our goalkicker was at Wembley watching some Americans running into one another. Yawn.

Stockport had no such problems and they extended their lead to 15-10 with a drop-goal.

Sedgley had most of the play in the second half, but Stockport went further ahead with a converted try, the Park players expecting a whistle for a knock-on, and then a penalty goal; 25-10.

Sedgley continued to press, came close to scoring a couple of times, and finally got the deserved try through Eamon O’Brien. Adam Cheshire converted, but it was not enough. Final score: 17-25.

Richard Newman had a tremendous game, with good contributions from Jacob Cooper, Jonathan Marr and Jonathan Stanley. The Stockport stand-off was the difference between the sides, and the home team had tackled well, also.

No Colts games to report.