This weekend Pavs welcomed local rivals, Newark RFC to The Stump.
Games between the two clubs are always hotly contested with last season’s honours being shared.
With a large number of Pavs vice presidents and former players in attendance, the atmosphere pre match was lively in the bar with all being expectant of some fine entertainment on the pitch. They were not to be disappointed.
The game kicked off with the pitch looking manicured due to the good offices of Howard Marshall and his team.
After three minutes, the powerful Phil Eggleshaw swept aside all in front of him to go in at the corner to give Pavs a 5-0 lead.
Pavs continued to push forward, attacking at every opportunity. As these things can go, on eleven minutes a loose ball was snaffled by Newark and ran back to score from a distance and take the lead at 7-5.
The next ten minutes saw Pavs continue to throw the ball around with abandon, resulting in the Tom Davies and skipper Doug Billam going in for scores and George Billam adding the extras to give Pavs a 19-7 lead on twenty one minutes.
Whether Pavs went into sleep mode or Newark stepped it up in the final twenty minutes of the half is debatable, but either way Newark struck back with two converted tries of their own to retake the lead at 21-19, one could say somewhat against the run of play.
Following the break, and five minutes into the half, Newark added a penalty to extend their lead to 24-19. This seemed to shake Pavs into action and get back on it.
Hooker Owen Taylor sprinted in for a fine touchdown to level matters up at 24-24 on forty seven minutes. Eight minutes Newark again retook the lead with a penalty.
Doug Billam was forced off with a shoulder injury to be replaced by the talented Noah Bhatia and Russ Todd replaced Tom Ryan upfront.
On sixty two minutes fly half George Billam cut through a gap to score and add the conversion to put Pavs back in the lead at 31-27.
Two minutes later, Phil Eggleshaw again broke through to score and with Billam on hand to add the conversion to bring the score to 38-27.
On seventy one minutes, wing Danny Green finished a fine move to give Pavs a seemingly insurmountable lead at 43-27. Pavs again throttled back, allowing Newark to score two more tries in the dying minutes just to keep the blood pressure of the Pavs faithful up at the top of the scale.
Sam Bradley replaced youngster Jacob Playford in the dying minutes as the game to its end.
Final score 43-39 to Pavs.
All in all, a highly entertaining afternoon for the gathered throngs, but perhaps a little less so for the Pavs coaching team in the respect that they let Newark back in more than once.
At the end of the day a five point win against a strong local rival is not to be sneezed at!! Pavs will take the points, learn the lessons and move on to Ilkeston RFC at The Stute next week.
Squad: Tom Ryan (rep 55mins), Owen Taylor (1 try), Dan Hyams , Chris Tipton, Tom Gladwin, Jacob Playford, Matt Molyneux, Phil Eggleshaw (2 tries), Jonty Green, George Billam (1 try,4 conv), Danny Green (1 try), Doug Billam (1 try), Morgan Jones, Tom Davies (1 try), Dan Flint
Impacts: Russ Todd (55 mins), Noah Bhatia (55 mins), Sam Bradley (72 mins)
Forward of the Match – Got to be two – Tippo and Phil !!
Back of the Match – The entire back line!!
