Whiteheads RFC - 17
Crickhowell RFC - 19
CRICKHOWELL'S nightmare start to their season in Division Six South East ended on the weekend as they put an end to the rot with a two point win over Whiteheads.
In the absence of club captain James Webb, the side was skippered by Shane Burton, and he, alongside his backrow partners Tom Payne and Jason Cole, put in huge performances.
In fact the whole park played out of its skin with tighthead Dave Jackson putting in a particularly gritty showing.
With scrum half Tom Millington chasing everything at the breakdown, Crickhowell soon had Whiteheads on the backfoot.
A clearance kick inside their 22 metre line was charged down by Millington who quickly fed his skipper Burton for a 20 metre charge that ended with a touchdown in the corner.
Adam Howells added the conversion from the touchline.
Crick continued to harass Whiteheads and a loose ball was seized on by Burton who passed to wingman Martin Smith to race in for an unconverted try.
On the stroke of half-time, Whiteheads got converted try of their own as their number eight split the Crick defence and passed to his fullback who scored.
Following the interval, Crickhowell nodded off and found themselves under real pressure,
Yet despite slipping behind to 17-12, Burton rallied his side and following a sweeping passing move from inside their own half the ball reached Martin Smith on the wing.
The winger had cut inside off his wing - appeared in midfield and outflanked the defence to score.
Adam Howells converted to seal victory in an excellent result achieved by a great team effort.
Usk RFC - 26
RTB Ebbw Vale RFC - 3
ON Saturday Usk visited the Hilltop ground of RTB Ebbw Vale and picked up a few more valuable league points to aid them in their bid for promotion from Division Five East.
Although the pitch was ideally suited to the open, running game that Usk have been playing recently, the first half saw Usk mishandling balls and lacking any continuity of play.
Both sides kept incurring the wrath of the referee and the first half was littered with penalties. Dan Forrester of Usk was successful with three kicks and RTB kicked one penalty. Usk finished the half with a 9-3 lead.
The second half started in the same vein but Usk started to string passes together and Andy Farrell ran in two tries from deep which saw him slice through the RTB defence.
Dan Forrester converted both tries and also dropped a goal between the tries.
Both sides continued to upset the referee and RTB had one player yellow carded, whilst Usk saw Ben Papp and Emlyn Jones both spend 10 minutes in the sin bin.
Yet Usk had the better of it and run out comfortable winners.
This week saw the Usk forwards performing better in the set pieces, with Ben Papp excelling in the loose. Next Saturday sees Usk entertaining Hartridge again - this time for league points.