THE Wingham Tigers were at home at the Wingham Sporting Complex on Saturday against the Wauchope Blues. It was an injury depleted Tigers outfit, but they were boosted by the return of captain coach Kurt Lewis off the bench.
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It was the visitors who scored initially inside the first 10 minutes, and then again to lead 10-0 midway through the first half.
Wingham got on the scoreboard soon after when Aaron Bakewell scored from dummy half. Michael Bailey kicked the sideline conversion.
Kurt Lewis was sin-binned, and then a couple of minutes later, Tim Bridge was sent off. The Blues capitalised with a try right on half time to lead 16-6 at the break.
In the first minute of the second half, an intercept saw a Wauchope player race away to score under the posts and lead 22-6, and it looked like an upset was likely.
From a tap kick, the ball went wide, and Tyler Atkins strolled over in the corner to give the Tigers some hope. Michael Bailey added the extra points to trail 22-12.
Ten minutes later, Tyler Atkins scored again to reduce the deficit to just six points.
Then Trent Green scored after Mitch Collins ran from dummy half. Michael Bailey leveled the scores with his conversion, with 10 minutes remaining.
As full time approached, Kurt Lewis ran across field and then darted through the defence to score. Michael Bailey's conversion made the final score 28-22 in a courageous fightback by the Tigers.
(Tyler Atkins two, Aaron Bakewell, Trent Green, Kurt Lewis tries, Michael Bailey four goals.)
The Reserve Grade Tigers gifted the Blues with their first try from a dropped ball, before Jake Smith scored in the corner to level the scores at 4-4 after a quarter of an hour.
Then Brendan Butler and Nick Beacham scored back-to-back tries, both converted by Nick Beacham.
A second try to Brendan Butler just before half time, again converted by Nick Beacham made the score 22-4 at the break.
Tries to Adam Kerr and Jake Smith, both converted by Nick Beacham extended the lead to 34-4.
Wauchope responded with three tries to make the score 34-20 with ten minutes left in the game.
Garyn Burnes then picked up a dropped ball to score in the corner.
Two tries to Jackson Mullen in the final five minutes made the final score 48-20, and the Reserve Grade Tigers retain the competition lead.
(Jake Smith two, Brendan Butler two, Jackson Mullen two, Nick Beacham, Adam Kerr, Garyn Burnes tries, Nick Beacham six goals.)
The Under 18s never got into the game trailing 24-0 at half time.
Early in the second half, with the Blues ahead 30-0, Wingham lost two players to the sin-bin, and another sent off.
Wauchope added another six tries in the final twenty minutes to run out convincing winners by 62-0.
The Ladies League Tag team were also outclassed by Wauchope 64-0 after trailing 24-0 at half time.
During the afternoon, over 20 life members of the Wingham Tigers gathered together to see Wayne Goward inducted as the newest life member.
Next Sunday July 25, the Tigers travel to the regional stadium at Port Macquarie to take on the Port Macquarie Sharks, who are the Group Three competition leaders, just ahead of the Tigers.
