The Rugby Club 2nd XV hosted Stockton 3rd XV at Moore Lane.  With a continued shortage of referees in the county, Stuart McIvor again took the whistle. Despite this, and a number of cry-offs from the 1st team, Aycliffe were able to field a squad of 17.
The early exchanges were fairly close, but Aycliffe were able to take the lead when young Matt Parsons scored his first try for the club after a good backs move. The lead was doubled when JJ Rudge went over and another try was added with Connor Blakey just managing to touch the line with the end of the ball as he was dragged to the ground.
Aycliffe featured a strong back row of Ronnie Gilyeat, Craig Holmes and Malcolm Woodward and this gave plenty of ball for scrum-half Jason McLean to feed to the pacy backs. Two further tries from Blakey, to complete a first half hat-trick, and another from Rudge, combined with three Rudge conversions saw Aycliffe 36 – 0 up at half time.
With Stockton down to 14 men due to injury, Aycliffe generously lent Craig Holmes to the opposition and it was they who scored the first try of the second half. Normal service was resumed as Mikey Dunn proved too fast as he outpaced the defence to score out wide. Phill Sangster, playing at centre, burst through the middle to score a converted try. Rudge then added two more tries to his tally; in both cases, his attempt to convert his own score came back off the left hand post.  Holmes then ran in a try from 40 metres for Stockton, but it was Aycliffe who added the final score with a try from guest Graham Brennan; his attempted drop kick conversion was less worthy of praise. At that point the game was ended 12 minutes early with a final score of 63 – 10.
The 2nd team is going from strength to strength at Aycliffe with a number of players challenging strongly for places in the all-conquering 1st XV.
Despite the demise of Englands run in the world cup there are still home nations still in contention against the southern hemisphere teams. Newton Aycliffe Sports club are screening all the matches live on big screens and lounge TVs. All supporters are welcome.
Aycliffe Rugby is sponsored by Redworth Hall Hotel and Whitehouse Funeral Service.