Bury hosted Orrell at home, running out comfortable winners

In their first pre-season match, Bury hosted Orrell at home, running out comfortable winners. With new drainage work being undertaken on the Radcliffe Road ground pitches, the games had to be played on the Derby High School grounds. This however proved to be no problem for the Bury side who won 50 – 10.
The game began with Bury attacking the visitor’s line after receiving the ball from the kick-off, but the home side could not make their territory count straight away. Orrell gained possession and with five minutes gone, scored their only try of the first half with a series of short drives eventually penetrating the Bury defence. The conversion was missed and left the visitors with a 0 – 5 lead.
The home side were to score next and from a penalty kick by the returning Adam Heath, Orrell’s lead was cut to two points. His next score was a try after a cutting move involving the centre partnership of Ben and Lawrence Shedwick and speedster Sam Ware. The score was easily converted.
In a ‘Man of the Match’ performance, Heath scored a total of 35 points (a try, three conversions and eight penalties) and maintained a 100% success rate when kicking for points.
Shortly after acquiring a 10 – 5 lead, the game had to go to uncontested scrums due to an injury and Orrell’s lack of available props. This didn’t stop Bury from performing a very impressive rolling maul, of over 20 metres, from a line-out and with powerhouses Wayne Elloway and Ben Holland adding drive to the pack, it looked like it would have gone all the way over the Orrell try line, but for some foul play to prevent it. This again led to Bury increasing their lead through another penalty.
To finish the half, Ben Holland then bulldozed his way through several tackles and left the half-time score at 26 – 5.
The second half continued in the same vein as the first with Bury increasing their lead through the boot of Heath at every given opportunity. The visitors were to score their second try of the afternoon, when the quick footwork of their centre opened up the Bury defence, again the conversion was missed.
The final try of the afternoon was created by a mixture of Bury forwards and backs, including Alex English; Callum Patten; Elliott Naylor; Karl Simpson; Jordan Miller and was finished exquisitely by veteran Chris Potts.
With the game finishing 50 – 10, the Bury coach, Darren Hall, was pleased with the overall performance of the squad in their first game of the year and will now seek further improvements before their opening game of the season.