This was certainly one of those weeks that posed massive selection problems. There were no less than 35 players who had turned out for 1sts or 2nds so far this season that were not available Saturday. Reasons for players and officials unavailability included those as if they had come out of a newspaper's Births, Deaths and Marriages classified page. Dylan Langley couldn't travel as his partner is due to give birth, Mick Ainslie was at a funeral and Mark Power and others were at a wedding.

At 2.30pm we had 12 men so Scott Buttery was persuaded to get off his sick bed and a bit later boots were found for a watching Brian Robinson jnr and we nervously awaited the arrival of those who had said they would be late. Hendo then answered the call and a hungover Squid unexpectedly turned up as we were going out so we had 15 on the pitch at KO and one in the changing room. Unfortunately we were pretty disorganised and Barney were much more effective than their league position suggested. They rattled up 5 unanswered tries before Squid pulled one back following a forwards drive

HT Rovers Heughers 5 - 27 Barnard Castle 2nds

Reinforcements had turned up at various stages during the first half and, remarkably, we now had a squad of 21. This was offset by an injury to Hendo after 5 minutes with Scott following him off the field shortly later and general wear and tear taking its toll on others. We did have a more balanced side though and despite playing into a strong wind were the more dominant team. Freeman Lane and Darren Smith were prominent from the base of the scrum and we had several chances to score before Squid squeezed over out wide. Pip hit the post with a good kick that surprised many of us to leave the score at 10-27. Again we pressed and could have got other scores that would have made the game very interesting. However it was Barney who broke away twice in the last 10 minutes for 2 more tries. We didn't give up though and Mattys Lidster and Stephenson went close before Darren Smith drove over for a deserved consolation try. There was a nice touch near the end when Pip came off to give his watching dad Neil some game time.

FT - Rovers Heughers 15 - 41 Barnard Castle 2nds

Firstly well done to Barnard Castle on lowering our colours. They were an organised, effective side who played the game in the right manner and fully deserved their win. But most of all well done to everyone who turned out and gave their all for the club. My thanks especially go to those Rovers who answered the call. Players like Hendo who was at the gym in the morning but turned out for what must be his 30th year of senior rugby and Kirto who came down to watch, saw we were struggling and came on to give us options. Other spectators roped in were Neil Addison and Brian Robinson jnr who only came down to laugh at Ben Gibson having to start and ended up playing more game time than him! Several others started or played on when the more sensible option may have been to stay off the pitch.

With the introduction of 7 players who haven't played for the Heughers before Saturday this brings the total number used to date to 61. A pretty startling number considering we only field 2 sides. If only we could get everyone available together we could easily have 3 or more teams. Given the number of unavailabilities it is a credit we still got two full squads out. Some clubs didn't.

Next week we are HOME to Bishop Auckland in the last 3pm KO of the year. Bishop beat Barney earlier in the season so it will be a challenge for us.

Squad

Hendo, Harrington, Wright, Gunn, Kirto, P Addison, N Addison, Coxon, Wallace, Buttery, Matty Stevo, Healey, Lidster, S Saunders, Stoddart, Gibson, Robinson, Langley, Lane, Squid, D Smith (c)