Sevens up and counting for P&S

The Northumberland 7s enabled the club to lock horns with other sides from around the county, over the course of a month.

The first round of sevens circuit matches saw Prudhoe and Stocksfield take a nine-man squad to Tynedale Park at Corbridge, where they took on Blyth, Novocastrians, and Percy Park.

New signing Steven Talbot debuted for P&S, but while they won only one match out of three, there were many positives.

The club’s Yannick Debil said: “Playing four games back-to-back against teams who play their rugby in the higher leagues really tested the P&S lads.

“After some narrow defeats, we came away with a well deserved 31-24 victory in the final game of the round against Novocastrians.

“Positives of the first round of games included Robert Reid and Stephen Armstrong crossing the line for their first ever tries in the blue, white, and red.”

P&S travelled to North Shields for the second round, where they again encountered Novocastrians and Percy Park, as well as a Barbarian team.

Will Foster was ruled out due to injury, but Matty Ferguson was drafted in as P&S narrowly lost 17-12. They went on to win 19-10 against the Barbarians, before taking a 12-0 lead against Percy Park, with James Bradshaw and Joe Hughes registering. Despite a Percy Park comeback, P&S won 17-14. Debil himself got on the scoresheet. The final instalment of the Northumberland 7s took place at Morpeth, with P&S, Novocastrians, and Blyth, joined by teams from Alnwick and Ryton.

A strong squad of 11 made the trip, with Jonathon Dodds and Daniel Whiley coming into the side, while Adam Murphy made his 7s debut.

P&S put up a good fight against an Alnwick side containing many first team and county level players, before going on to register an impressive 26-22 victory over Novocastrians.

Tries from Chris Patterson and Gerry Robinson helped to guide P&S to a 32-12 victory over Blyth, before they rounded off their fixtures with a 29-15 win over Ryton.