Chester stuttered to an unconvincing yet welcome victory over a spirited Harrogate side on Saturday at Hare Lane. This avenged the 6-point defeat suffered at Ruddings Lane in October. Whilst the visitors currently sit at the bottom of National 2 North, it's worth noting that they have accumulated more try bonus and losing bonus points than any other side in this league. They may not win many games but they've proved that they are no pushover.
In some ways, Chester scoring in the first minute might not have been the wisest thing to do as some may have believed that an easy afternoon was on the cards. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was returning winger Harrison Vare who dotted down within 60 seconds of the kick-off; a powerful run ending up underneath the posts. Fly-half Morgan Bagshaw added the conversion and when he landed a penalty on 5 mins to stretch the lead to 10, things were looking promising.
Whether it was home side complacency or Harrogate upping the tempo, keeping errors to a minimum and also capitalising on home side errors is all up for conjecture. What wasn't however was their ability to put Chester under pressure and score two quick tries in response to take a 10-14 lead. At the end of the 1st quarter, back rower Harry Graham scored wide out on the right putting the home side back in the lead which they kept during a scrappy 2nd quarter when the scoreboard wasn't troubled by either side.
Harrogate started the brighter in the second half and regained the lead on 44 minutes when experienced replacement Maycock went over with Metcalf unable to add the conversion.
With club skipper Harry Craven now on at 9, Chester looked to pick up the pace and be a bit more direct. This approach was rewarded on 65 minutes when Craven dived over close to the ruck (pictured). Bagshaw landed the kick, as he was also to do impressively from wide out 5 minutes later after Man of the Match Harrison Vare used his pace to exploit space wide on the right and then find centre Andrew McMinimee running a great support line to score. With the lead now extended to 29-19, you could be forgiven for thinking the home side were home and hosed, but the visitors sensed there was something to be had from the match and they completed the scoring on 78 minutes with a converted try from No8 Oliver Tomalin turning a blank day into 2 bonus points.