The annual Billy Davidson Memorial Match served up a fire cracker of match at Lowca on a glorious sunny afternoon, albeit on a pitch that was still wet and slippery with the accumulated rain from downpours of the previous few days, writes Ben Challis.
This game unfolded as a hard and sometimes bruising battle between two well matched teams, but it was Distington opened the scoring with Deaton Askew diving in by the right corner flag for an unconverted try 10 minutes in.
It took Lowca just two minutes to reply with Jordan Allen crashing over and Evan Hodgson converting for a 6-4 Lowca lead. Distington hit back with try from Jack Penrice who jinked and bounced his way through a scrambling Lowca defence, and with Kelvin Lynch adding the conversion the lead swapped back for 6-10.
Distington were now the better side and scored two more unconverted tries, the first from Jaiden Hewer who attacked through the centre to dot down, and then a breakaway Phil Lister who barrelled through the Lowca defence at some speed to dive in and just make the try line.
That was it for the first half, and it was 6-18 at half time.
The second half began with a fight back from Lowca, with the home side taking full advantage of the Lowca ‘slope’.
The first try came from the impressive Emerson Allen who used his strength to force his way to the Distington try line right under the sticks, and the Hodgson conversion made it 12-18.
Distington responded and extended their lead through a try from Kieran Worthington under the Lowca sticks ,this one converted by Hewer, before Lowca closed the gap again with an unconverted try from James McNally.
Lowca’s Xenden Callander scored the try of the match from his powerful run down the right win and a beautiful dive in to score, and with Jamie Scott converting the score was now a very close 22-24.
The game wasn’t done, and the icing on the cake for Distington came in the closing minutes when sustained Distington pressure set up James Motum who scored a final try converted by Hewer for 22-30.
Two minutes later referee Craig Regan’s final whistle blew and Distington took the win.
