Cartha Queen's Park were almost up to full strength for this away game against the an unbeaten Hamilton side which had played five of it's six games away from home. Hamilton could therefore be expected to be full of confidence.

Robert Harvey was listed to play but apparently has still not recovered from the flu and Peter Nicol was in his place with Johnny Peyton at hooker. Peter Hollier Fraser McKinnon Craig Millar and Michael Gallacher were on the bench. Andrew Noble had still not recovered from the injury suffered at Whitecraigs and was replaced by Alan Howie who was also coming back from injury.

The backs had been rearranged with Alan and Adam Stewart on the wings and Chis and Tony in the centre and Scott McInnes at number 10,John McCrossan at 9 with Andy Scott switched to full back.

The weather was dry but it was colder than predicted.

Hamilton kicked off with the wind at their backs and their number 11 scored down the left wing when some sleepy CQP tackling failed to prevent the try with only one minute played. This was certainly not the start CQP would have wished for especially as in the previous game they had conceded a try to Musselburgh after only two minutes.

 Another similarity to the previous week was that Hamilton had a height advantage in the lineout and in addition were putting the CQP set piece under pressure.

Hamilton's pitch had been completely relaid since our last visit and their new pitch provides a first class surface for open rugby. To their credit both sides seemed to be intent on running the ball.

The game was progressing with Hamilton having both territorial and possession advantage and it was no great surprise when Hamilton increased their lead to eight points with a penalty after twentyseven minutes.With half time approaching Alan Howie went off to be replaced by Michael Gallacher and shortly afterwards Hamilton added three more points when Tony Nyangweso stripped the ball from the Hamilton attacker but was penalised presumably because the ref felt he had come round from the wrong side. This was only one of a number of refereeing decisions by Mhairi McKay that left the CQP support bemused.

From the kick off CQP went straight upfield and Andy Scott used his pace to score an excellent try on the right wing which Iain Chishom converted. The try had started with some neat passing between John McCrossan and Ross Gillies. 

From the Hamilton kick off CQP surged upfield again and mauled the ball over the Hamilton line but the ball was adjudged to have been held up. CQP were not however to be thwarted and scored again when Andy Scott got in for his second touchdown this time just inside the corner flag. The conversion was missed but shortly after this the half-time whistle was blown to leave CQP with a 12-11 lead at the break. The Hamilton support must have been somewhat shell-shocked at this rapid change as overall they had clearly had the better of the first half.

When play resumed McKinnon had been brought on in place of Pete Nicol and Hollier came on for Dickson. With only six minutes of the half played a John McCrossan attempted clearance was charged down but the ball went straight into John's hands and was then passed out to the wing through two more sets of hands to Michael Gallacher who burst down the wing and brought the ball closer to the posts for CQP's third try. Iain Chisholm again converted to leave the score at 19-11. With ten minutes on the clock CQP were penalised in midfield for failure to roll away in the tackle but the resultant penalty was missed. Shortly after this Fraser McKinnon was sinbinned for a high tackle inside the Hamilton twenty-two. Hamilton took full advantage of their being one man over in the scrum and after being awarded a penalty about the halfway line belted the ball into touch some five metres from the CQP line and it was no great surprise to see them take and drive over the CQP line with the try being awarded to Selfridge the Hamilton number eight. The conversion failed to move the score to 19-16 to the visitors.  CQP pushed their lead up to six points after a successful Chis penalty. With CQP still a man down Hamilton took advantage and scored a third try this time between the posts. With this try converted hamilton regained the lead with the score at 23-22 to the home team with twelve minutes left on the clock.

McKinnon resumed and Millar came on in place of Nicol. With the clock running down Hamilton got another opportunity to take and drive after CQP conceded another penalty.The try was in the corner and the conversion was missed. Shortly after this the final whistle went to leave Hamilton with their undefeated run in tact but breathing a sigh of relief as they knew it had been touch and go for a while.

CQP have now played three of the top four teams away from home and have secured a losing bonus on each occasion. There is every reason to believe that these defeats can be reversed when these teams come to Dumbreck.There was plenty of good open rugby played in this game and some of the CQP play was a delight to watch with a real purple patch before halftime. Generally the newly arranged  back line up looked better than it has done with relatively few handling errors.

The real turning point in this game was the yellow card given to McKinnon for the high tackle. There was nothing particularly malicious about the tackle and the tackled player seemed to dip just before he was tackled. On another occasion the offence might well have resulted in nothing more serious than a penalty and a warning. Hamilton already had the edge up front and the one man advantage was very costly to this battling CQP side who most certainly did not let themselves down playing the team who arguably are the best team in the division at present.

If we can avoid conceding early scores and reduce the number of penalties conceded for technical offences we should start to improve our league position.  

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