Drama and controversy, on and off the field, are part and parcel of the fabric of sport and before the seconds fixture against Caldy a few problems surfaced.
The non arrival of Vale’s Luke Ford forced Scott Manning to mix and match his charges which caused him to move Alfie Bolton, Petar Alexov and Adam Bolton into some unaccustomed positions in the pack; all three all three distinguished themselves with a whole hearted, totally committed performance.
While the Vale were shoe-horning their starting line up into some semblance of order Caldy had a crisis to deal with when one of their props was injured in the warm up. This situation provoked a lively debate surrounding the new regulations pertaining to uncontested scrums but eventually the matter was cleared up when the visitors discovered a player who was familiar with the demands of propping.
Caldy had travelled with a full squad which included five replacements with one of the gentleman playing for the Vale in the closing stages when he came on for an injured player; hats off to Caldy for their sportsmanship.
Unfortunately some of the younger Vale players rather let their team mates and themselves down by disputing a number of referee Ralston’s decisions which not only infuriated the match official, who quickly penalised the Vale, but also the second teams most loyal supporters.
Caldy opened the scoring with a fourth minute unconverted try from their left wing but the Vale hit back a minute later with and Alex Briggs penalty goal.
Despite all the chopping and changing that had taken place for the Vale ahead of the kick off the forwards more than matched their opposite numbers but it was Caldy’s sprightly back division who always posed a threat as was highlighted when one of their centres crashed through tackles on his way to a converted try in the twentieth minute.
Vale were very much in contention as the half time score line suggested but the game started to drift away from them early in the second half when Al Crookall was sent to the sin-bin for a show of petulance. Caldy took full advantage to extend their lead with a brace of tries. Suddenly Caldy’s back division started to cut loose as the Vale struggled as the tempo increased and the dreaded half century was reached.
In addition to the trio who threw themselves into their new roles with an abundance of enthusiasm, hooker Richard Hodgson played with his usual energy to set a fine example to those around him.