photo by Andrew Smith

Blackwood Bulldogs clinched the first place in the Welsh Conference with a 15 try demolition of bottom club West Wales Sharks.  It was a record score for the Bulldogs and if the referee hadn't blown early then three figures were on the cards.

On a day of records, surely another was created as young up and coming Irishman Des Reynolds made his debut for Blackwood at the age of 62.  He also caught the eye with a couple of rampaging runs.

In fact, on a day of such a high score, the Sharks battled well early on with no score after 15 minutes, but once Gareth Price opened the scoring the flood gates opened.

Ryan Lee, Grenville Jones, Kelton Nicholls, Paul Young, and Anthony Symmonds all scored tries, and at half time the Bulldogs were 48-0 ahead.

The Sharks kept battling with veterans Dai Price, Craig Clements and Al Borgese all rolling back the years, and they got the biggest cheer of the day from a sizable crowd when the Sharks got off the mark at 60-4..

The procession continued with Price adding a second whilst fellow Markham product Clark Morgan also got a pair.  The James brothers Trevor and David even beat that when they put together a six shooter of tries, with Trevor getting four of them.  He also converted one.  Paul Emmanuelli topped that by getting ten conversions of his own.

The only respite for the Sharks was when Roger Moore capped a "Saintly" performance by engineering a try.

An excellent day for Blackwood Bulldogs, who now go on to the play offs with a guaranteed home semi-final, where the bustling runs of Reynolds are expected to figure a little less!

article by Tony Evans
13 July 2008