Baildon Batter Blakey’s Brawlers

Baildon arrived in numbers with a mixture of youth and experience plus a referee and indulged in well organised warm up as Leo’s milled in mild curiosity.
The visitors began at pace, unsurprisingly startling the home side who had to defend vigorously for the first ten minutes, mainly inside their 22. Darting pressure-reliving runs from Cadge Lite and booming kicks from Tim Leslie came to Leo’s rescue as the line held firm and the forwards set about securing some decent possession. The centre partnership of Phil The Power and Jinking Jayne was repelled time and again by the strong visiting defence while the speedsters out wide (and I use that word quite inaccurately) Kinga and Tom never had time or space, or indeed pace, to make any inroads. Baildon scored first after some pressure. After a couple of penalties to make good territory the pack set about a drive from Tom G catch and after some recycling and redirection there was enough of a gap for Carl to crash over for a reply. Prop Dave and The Ambler put themselves about while the back row got amongst Baildon who began to get a tad tetchy. The visitors scored again before Chris Macklin crashed over but was denied by the unsighted referee. More defence followed before Cadge Lite launched a massive up and under which was galloped after by Scotty and Tom W. A wicked bounce wrong footed the fullback and the second one took the ball out of the reach of the careering but inflexible chasers and Scotty knocked on and left the field for a rest. James Poll added some directness to the pack work but Baildon held out till half time.
The visitors refreshed their line up, and Leo’s carried on with the 15 who finished the first half. Prop Dave retired hurt and while the set scrums went passive the rest of the game went active and aggressive. Some rugby broke out during the second half but the game was littered with spats, fisticuffs, wrestling and medium scale brawling. Kinga’s loss of pace was a feature in him not getting over from his wing to assist but there was good teamwork whenever support was required. The visitors certainly didn’t like it up them and their captain resorted to standing behind his pack announcing “You’re going to get it” individually to the Leo’s pack. Phil The Power scored a great try, but Blakey was brawling so the ref disallowed it. Leo’s applied immense pressure to the infringing visitor’s line but scuffling distracted the referee from making the right calls, and he also missed a Craig Irvine try. Baildon scored again before Chris Macklin finished off in the corner. More pressure, more shamozzling and a try for Tim Leslie out wide, which he converted with aplomb. 2 points behind and 5 minutes left to secure a gallant victory. Sadly, once again, exhaustion and lack of positional experience let Baildon in for an undeserved final try as Leo’s wondered where all the three quarters go on a Saturday afternoon.