CQP plans for a more or less full strength team were thrown into disarray when May (injury) Noble ( sickness ) and McKinnon ( late holiday trip ) withdrew on the Thursday. The loss of McKinnon in particular was a blow as CQP had hoped to gain the upperhand in the tight.

CQP team 15 Manning 14 Black 12 Scott 13 Goudie 11 R Gilmour 10 Burrows 9 Davidson 8 Hollier 7 Gillies 6 Cook 5 Nellany 4 Williamson ( C ) 3 Plitch 2 G Gilmour and 1 Harvey

SUBS Burke,Dickson Murray and Sherlock.The match opened with a brisk wind at CQP's back and with only a minute played CQP had a chance to go ahead with a penalty but the kick by Burrows was pulled to the left of the posts.

With five minutes on the clock GHA were awarded a kickable penalty but opted to put the ball into touch. Shortly after this GHA were awarded another penaklty well inside the CQP half and this time their scrum half chose to take it short.

With seven minutes on the clock GHA mounted an attack which lead to the ball going to their captain Andy Henderson who found a gap in the CQP defence to score a try converted by Houston.

Soon after this CQP were awarded a kickable penalty but again the conversion failed.

When CQP were awarded a further penalty the kicking responsibility was passed to Andi Black who duly popped it over. A success which he repeated only three minutes later to move the score to 7-6 to the homesters.

With the end of the first quarter approaching GHA added a second try with a fine backs move which saw the ball moved out to the left wing for Gordon Adams to gain the touchdown which was not converted. Shortly after this Gregg Gilmour was replaced by Michael Plitch with Steven Murray coming on as prop.

Twenty-six minutes of play saw GHA stretch their lead with a successful penalty in front of the posts

On the half hour CQP put themselves back in contention when a good attack saw the ball passed back to Andy Scott who took the ball at pace and showing good aggression burst through at least two GHA tackles to score not far from the left post. Andi Black again did the necessary to move the score to 15-13.

GHA responded with a good move down the left hand side but failed to score when their left winger was adjudged to have put a foot in touch.

With halftrime approaching CQP made another change with Austin Burke replacing Iain Cook.

A further kickable penalty chance went abegging when Andi Black's attempted penalty conversion went to the left of the posts and the score stayed at 15-13 at the break with both teams appearing to have everything to play for but CQP left to rue their failure to take advantage of points scoring opportunities.

The resumption saw the arrival of torrential rain which drove in sheets down into the faces of the CQP defence.

CQP were awarded a penalty inside their own half but the attempt to find touch failed and GHA took advantage of the conditions to bang the ball well down the field into touch. Only three minutes into the second half saw a fine bit of backs play from GHA leading to a score by Rangi Jericevich in the right corner followed by a welll taken conversion kick which moved the score to 22-13 and only a minute later GHA secured their bonus point when Sam Pinder went over for a try which was converted to push GHA into a convincing 29-13 lead.

With seven minutes played the GHA tighthead who had been causing CQP considerable problems was yellow carded apparently for persistent foul play but the one man advantage was wiped out only three minutes later when Manning was yellow carded for persistent offside by CQP.

Two minutes later saw GHA score try number five when Henderson added his second. Again the try was converted.

CQP woes continued when the ball was kicked straight into touch from the kick off. GHA were now dominating play and added three more points with a successful penalty. Time was played out and the only other point of note apart from the appearance of Zander McInwham as a late front row sub was the yellow carding in the last minute of Rangi Jericevich apparently for verbal abuse of the referee.

Final Score GHA 39- CQP 13

There is no doubt that the better team won this game but the feeling was that GHA wanted the victory more and one or two CQP players played below form. An indication of GHA's superiority was that for a local game this match lacked the intensity that such clashes normally engender.

 In an effort to shake off the disappointment of this defeat your reporter took a wander down to Dumbreck on the Sunday to witness our unbeaten under sixteen team rack up over sixty points without reply in maintaining their 100% record v Argyll. In addition immediately following this game our ladies staged a superb comeback to defeat Stirling County 24-19. Earlier in the day our S1/S2 team had beaten Cumbernauld all of which helped a little to lift the gloom hanging over Dumbreck.

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