Birmingham and Solihull Bees shatter Blaydon's unbeaten home record
Jan 26 2009 by Tim Ivershed, Birmingham Post
NATIONAL TWO: Blaydon 15 Birmingham & Solihull 31
Birmingham and Solihull player coach Russell Earnshaw said the team were in the right place mentally to challenge for the National League Two title after the convincing win at Blaydon.
Bees ended Blaydon’s proud unbeaten home record with a comprehensive display of powerful forward play and slick handling moves.
“There will be a few more twists and turns in this league, we’ve already seen a lot of unpredictable scores,” said Earnshaw. “The boys like a challenge and we’re in a good place mentally now. We have a good competitive squad with good players on the bench waiting their turn
“We defended brilliantly and really had them under the full court press, to borrow a basketball term,” said Earnshaw.
Bees took the lead in the second minute with a skilfully taken try, which saw left wing Mitch Culpin touch down in the corner from a passing move that had begun on the opposite touchline.
Three penalties by fly half Mark Woodrow stretched the lead to 14 points before half an hour had passed.
Blaydon missed a chance to reduce the deficit when fly half Charles Raymer’s 30-metre penalty attempt drifted wide. Bees took advantage of the let-off going on the attack from the resulting drop-out, centre Cameron Mitchell made a scintillating break, which took him to Blaydon’s 10-metre line where he handed the ball onto flanker Rob Connolly who finished off a superb try. Woodrow added the conversion to give the visitors a 21-0 half-time lead over a shell-shocked Blaydon side.
Bees continued their domination of the game at the start of the second-half and Woodrow stretched the lead with another penalty on 44 minutes after Blaydon were caught offside.
The score finally seemed to galvanise Blaydon who were nevertheless unable to get onto the scoresheet until Earnshaw was sin-binned for tackling a man without the ball. Blaydon utilised their man advantage to create an opening for winger Andrew Fenby to score a try, which Raymer was unable to convert.
The home side almost closed the gap further when full back Adam Dehaty went through only to drop the ball with the line at his mercy. It proved a costly error as Woodrow combined with Alex Davidson, who drove within a few metres of the line before passing to his second-row partner Shaun Pammenter who touched down.
As Bees pushed for a fourth try and a bonus point Blaydon took advantage of the gaps in their defence to score two consolation tries through prop Robbie Kalbraier and Fenby.
BLAYDON: Dehaty, Daniel, Shaw, Mercer, Fenby, Raymer (J Clark, 63), C.Clark, Kalbraier, Batty, Isaacson, Guthrie (Wermouth, 71), Whitehead, Riddell (St Bernard, 63), Welsh (Fearn, 71), Smithson. Replacement: Windle.
BEES: Spee, Hunt, Young, Mitchell, Culpin, Woodrow (Petty, 79), Brown, Long (Davies 63), Phillips (Preece, 79), Voisey, Davidson (Clayton, 79), Pammenter, Connolly, Earnshaw, Halavatau (Jenner, 63).
