After an impressive 69-10 victory against Bangor 2nd XV the previous week in the 2nd round of the Crawford cup Ballynahinch 3rd XV notched up another victory against local rivals Dromore 2nd XV at a cold Ballymacarn Park on Friday evening.

As per usual it was the opponents who started the strongest, kicking an early penalty goal to put then 3 points ahead in the opening stage of the game; however this was to be Dromore’s only contribution to the scoreboard.

It took Hinch a quarter of an hour to get their first of their seven scores. Richard Craig playing in his new open-side flanker position to accommodate the welcome addition of Alan Dickson into the Thirds was the first to cross the whitewash after being fed an inside ball from out half Pete Bell. Craig’s second try also came from an inside pass this time the provider was scrum half George Clements, who picked the ball from the base of the scrum, drew the opponents defence to open up space enabling Craig to run on to score from 25 metres out. Impressive tries also came from Chris Perry who beat his opposite man in the first 5 metres on the outside, he went on to leave a trail of 5 Dromore men on the floor as they attempted to slow the boy wonder down, however the wee man had different thoughts, their was no way that Perry was not going to get his name on the score sheet playing against his home town club.

Playing his second game for the 3rdXV winger Aaron Ferris recorded two tries to his name, beating the opposition for pace on both occasions. Debutant Alan Dickson also scored one and nearly went on to score a second only to be held up, a man with a wealth of knowledge and experience who also proved to be a useful asset. The ref blew the match up 10 minutes early as the ground was starting to harden and the snow to began fall. Clements converted 3 of the 7 tries. Full time score 41-3.

The 3rdXV have no match this coming Saturday, the following Saturday [16th] they are away to Ballymoney 2ndXV in the quarter final of the Crawford Cup. This will prove to be a much tougher opposition and given the current competition for positions from 1 to 15 all players should get to training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 18:45 on the lower pitch, as selection will be formed on this basis of the players who are training.

15 O Fletcher, 14 A Ferris, 13 S Geddis, 12 D Martin, 11 C Perry, 10 P Bell, 9 G Clements, 8 A Dickson, 7 R Craig, 6 N Davidson, 5 M Byrne, 4 I Wallace, 3 W Purdy, 2 C Morton, 1 N Montgomery.