The late push back, at Newforge and a delay, following a head injury, together with fighting the Saturday afternoon traffic on the Outer Ring, meant that I didn’t get to Belmont until almost halftime for the Championship One League fixture between CIYMS and Portadown. It was even more overcast and greyer than at Newforge, but, at least, the wind had dropped.

By the time that I’d arrived Portadown had run up a 25-3 lead, through tries by Ben Alexander, Jonny Reid and Michael Orr, together with 2 penalty goals and 2 conversions from Toby Gribben. CI had replied with a Paddy Beverland penalty goal.

I was in time to catch Marshall Clint