The Hornets entertained Gosforth Greengarth at Warwick Road on a warm sunny Saturday 21st September. Luckily for Gosforth, the Hornets had 21 players turn out for the match (which is a great response after the previous two weeks, which resulted in Carlisle having to concede the two matches), as Gosforth had travelled up with only 9 players, hoping to borrow players. As well as travelling with 9 players, they also had no front row, which unfortunately meant that the scrums would have to be uncontested. All the Carlisle substitutes apart from Geoff Greaves started for Gosforth.

Gosforth won the toss and chose to kick off, with Carlisle captain Chris Fairclough deciding to play slightly up hill towards Warwick Road. The match started lively with both teams using the good playing conditions as an opportunity to throw the ball about and play wide, expansive, running rugby. It became evident early on that their Outside Half was their best player, as he began to cut lines through the Carlisle defence. However without regular back up from the rest of his back line, nothing materialised for the West Cumbrian side. The Hornets began to pile the pressure on Gosforth with some good running rugby particularly up the right hand wing, but with some resilient defence and poor handling from Carlisle, the chances fell begging.

The deadlock was eventually broken by Carlisle in the 20th minute when after more sustained pressure, the Gosforth forwards eventually caved in and Eddie Faulder bashed his way over the try line from 5 metres out to score on his first game back from a major car accident. Ian Salter missed the conversion which left the score 5-0 to Carlisle. After some more end to end scuffles, which resulted in the Hornets having to scramble back in defence and stop an almost certain try, the second try of the match fell to Carlisle winger Scot Hogarth. After some great passing play in the middle of the field from the forwards, Scot used his sheer pace to race up the line and break through a couple of tackles to go over the try line in the corner. The conversion was once again missed by Ian Salter, leaving the score 10-0.

From the restart, Gosforth were given a lifeline, when Lock Josh Connley knocked the ball on to give Gosforth a decent field position. The Gosforth pack smelt their opportunity and after some hard fought rucking and tight play, they were rewarded for their efforts as the back line strolled through the Carlisle defence to score. The conversion was missed and the score was now 10-5 in Carlisle' favour. A very bizarre 5 minutes followed, with both teams continuously giving the ball away with both knock-ons and turn overs. After a couple of forays in the centre of the park from the Carlisle forwards running with the ball, another opportunity fell to young Winger Scot Hogarth to show his pace and tackle evasion skills. He danced his way through the Gosforth line and used his speed advantage to help him over the line and two defenders just to the right of the sticks. Ian Salter converted the try to take the score to 17-5.

Gosforth were not ready to lie down and take defeat however and just before half time they won a penalty in front of the posts. This came from some very tight play from their forwards and after some scrambling defence, a member of the Carlisle forwards was deemed to of slowed the ball down in the ruck, which inadvertently saved the try. With another ref it could of been an easy yellow to give, but the referee was happy just to award the penalty. The Gosforth Fly Half chose to take the three points and he happily stroked the ball over the bar to take the game into half time with the score Carlisle 17-8 Gosforth.

For the second half a few changes were made with who was playing for Gosforth. However the majority of the players chose to play on. The second half started as brightly as the first, with Gosforth wanting to try and peg Carlisle back to within striking distance and Carlisle trying to establish the dominance they showed in spells in the first half. Both Scrum Half Ben Purdham and Fly Half Nick Woof were happily commanding the game, linking both the forwards and backs together superbly and it proved costly for Gosforth as the Carlisle pack started to get the better of the Away forwards and with some quick rucking, Eddie Faulder barged his way over the line with the help of his fellow forwards. The try was converted by Ian Salter taking the score to 24-8.

The Carlisle back line started to look more aggressive with their angles of running and started to create a lot of problems down the two wings. However Winger Nick Bradley had to go off as he had hurt his neck and was suffering with neck and shoulder pains. This meant that Geoff Greaves came into the pack and Dave McGinn moving into the back line. With the expansive rugby that was being played and the extra space, players were getting tired. Gosforth broke through the line of defence with some excellent, basic draw and give rugby, however their efforts were in vain after some excellent cover defence by Ben Purdham, who managed to bring the man with the ball down and also slow the ball down enough at the break down for the rest of the defence to get back onside. However after some poor defence from Carlisle, Gosforth went over the try line for their second try, with the try being converted taking the score to 24-15.

Joe Harrington had to leave the field of play early due to work priorities, which the left Carlisle with 13 men. After a series of rucks, one of their players went of injured and thus reducing the teams to 13 players each. With Carlisle not out of the woods yet, the pressure was on to score the next try. This resulted in a period of play from both sides that can only be described as being poor. Both sides couldn't string 3 passes together let alone make progress towards the try line. Carlisle had a couple of opportunities, with one being Chris Fairclough dummying and going through the line, trying to draw the last defender and eventually releasing the winger, who was eventually brought down, but if he had looked inside he'd of seen Ian Hall in loads of space who would have been under the sticks. Things got tense until Oliver Morrison went over the line to score after some good running play from the backs. Ian Salter didn't convert the try and left the score at 29-15. The 5th Carlisle try seemed to kill the game off, but Carlisle weren't finished yet and with the last play of the game, Ian Salter dummied and side stepped his way around the whole Gosforth back line and beat everyone into the corner. He suprisingly converted his own try from a distance to take the match to the final whistle.

Final Score: Carlisle Hornets 36 - 15 Gosforth Greengarth

A big thanks must go out to the lads from Gosforth who travelled up with only 9 players and also to the Carlisle lads who volunteered to play for Gosforth and made it a very competitive match!

Team Line up:

1. Gary Kidd
2. Chris Fairclough (c)
3. Joe Harrington
4. Josh Connley
5. Fraser Farlow
6. Dave McGinn
7. Ian Hall
8. Eddie Faulder (2T)
9. Ben Purdham
10. Nick Woof
11. Scot Hogarth (2T)
12. Oliver Morrison (T)
13. Joe Mathews
14. Nick Bradley
15. Ian Salter (T)

16. Martin McLean
17. Sean Conner
18. Stu Clifford
19. Tony Ferguson
20. Jamie*
21. Geoff Greaves

*Don't have record of second name