Fifers hold on to see off Dalziel

Nov 9 2011 by Andrew Weston, Wishaw Press

HOWE OF FIFE survived a strong second-half Dalziel fightback to take maximum points in their Premier Three clash at the weekend.

The second-top Fifers were 20-9 up at half-time but when George Sloan crossed the line to make it 27-21 with five minutes to go it looked as if the home side could snatch an unlikely victory.

However handling errors proved costly for Davie Wilson’s side and an opportunity to build on an overlap was squandered in the last minute.

Dalziel started the match slowly and Howe took advantage of this in seven minutes when a straightforward backs move and some poor Dalziel tackling led to Iain Wilson crossing the line for the first score.

Both teams then traded penalty awards and in 10 minutes Howe took advantage of one of these, slotting the goal and increasing their lead to 8-0.

The game was being broken up by penalty after penalty and in 15 minutes it was Dalziel’s turn to take advantage, with Robert Simpson slotting their first points of the afternoon.

The hosts were having the better of the play and in 20 minutes one of Dalziel’s attacks were rewarded again, with Simpson making it 8-6.

Simpson missed a chance to give Dalziel the lead soon afterwards and before long two quickfire tries allowed Howe of Fife to open up a substantial 20-6 lead.

Simpson made it 20-9 before the interval with another penalty.

The second half belonged to Dalziel but poor handling led to them missing a great chance at the beginning of the half.

However, they were only held at bay for a little longer.

With the forwards driving almost to the line, they were held up by some strong Howe defence.

The ball was released to the backs, where James Baxendale dodged a couple of tackles and broke through a third to place the ball over the line close to the posts, giving Simpson an easy conversion to make it 20-16 after 50 minutes.

After the referee warned both sides about the high penalty count, Dalziel’s Ross Westwood was pulled up for holding on and sent to the sin bin.

This was to prove costly when a breakdown in play around midfield saw a Howe player run in under the posts after some good passing.

The conversion was successful, making the score 27-16 with 10 minutes to go.

A strong break from Simmonds and a good burst from George Sloan allowed the latter to get over the line and give Dalziel a chance of the win with five minutes to go.

But it was to be another handling error which cost Dalziel the chance to claim a late win.

Having secured an overlap, the last pass was dropped and Howe were able to celebrate a hard-fought victory.

l The second XV took on a strong Aberdeen Grammar side at the weekend and went down to a 40-0 defeat.

Dalziel mounted a period of sustained attacks on the Grammar line but were foiled by their own indiscipline.

A scuffle broke out on the Aberdeen 22 metre line in the second half which resulted in the referee handing out red cards to Dalziel’s Anton Mitchell and David Fitzpatrick and an Aberdeen player. Playing the final 15 minutes with a man advantage, Grammar scored three tries to complete a comfortable victory.

The third XV travelled to the south side of Glasgow to play Whitecraigs and returned with a thumping 75-17 victory.

Tries came from Mark Richardson, Barry Davidson, Andy McLatchie, Davie Stewart (2), Russell Crammond (2) and four from Scott McLelland.

Stewart and Andy Scott each added four conversions.

Whitecraigs were unable to field a full team,which resulted in no fewer than five Dalziel players - Chris Howieson, Neil Simpson, Jamie Muir, David Scott and Scott Rodgers - all featuring for the home side.

Howieson and Simpson (2) both scored tries for their temporarily adopted team.

The under-18s played their first game in a number of weeks and defeated GHA 15-12 at Brannock High School.

Dalziel’s under-16s had been without a match for five weeks but returned to action on Saturday, defeating Whitecraigs 17-5.