DIDSBURY TOC H 9pts BURY 36: By MIKE JONES

BURY winger Mark Fielding ran in a hat trick of tries as his team turned on the style with an entertaining second half display.

The first 40 minutes of the match had provided nothing to entertain spectators from either camp.

The pitch is poor, essentially being reclaimed farm land with the associated undulations and mud of a consistency that after only a few minutes playing leaves the boots clogged with the viscous clay masquerading as soil.

With the temperature barely above freezing and a bone-chilling wind, quality rugby was always unlikely to be a commodity in abundance, and so it proved.

The Bury side turned three points to the good, having managed to convert three of their penalty attempts to only two of the home side.

After testing Toc H's defensive capabilities, Bury started to play rugby in the 12th minute of the second period when the ball was moved from the left wing with Ian Webb, at stand off, looping to create the overlap and Fielding crossing the line in the corner for an unconverted try.

Considering that Bury were finding it hard to hold the ball in the first half and with hands that must now have been even colder, the handling was exemplary. The home side kept within touch of the Bury score when offered a penalty attempt from 35 metres out for the Bury threequarter line encroaching offside and this was well converted.

The next try by Bury was a result of pressure when a chip kick from centre Seane Tippett was gathered by his opposite centre. Harvey Leeming, backing up, tackled the player in possession, who fumbled the ball and right wing Fielding seized the opportunity and grounded slightly to the right of the posts to allow Webb an easy conversion.

Bury were now in full flow and in another exhibition of passing, whipped the ball from one side of the field to the other and outside centre Keith Webb fed inside to winger Gordon Bailey, who scored in the left corner.

There may have been a slight suspicion of a forward pass, but even the home spectators were charitable enough to say that the quality of the move deserved the try, if only for the entertainment it provided, and the referee was probably unsighted when the final pass was made.

Six minute later an opportune Bury move comprising two fly hacks to 15 metres out saw Webb feed Bailey and he linked with Tippett, arriving at pace.

The sight of the Antipodean emigre in full flow had the defenders parting like the waters of the Red Sea to allow him to score.

The last score of the game took place in the dying minutes when Tippett and Fielding, operating as a pair, charged down the right wing to give Fielding his hat trick.

Bury ran out deserved winners, having compensated the by now frozen spectators for the first half by providing high quality entertainment, both in terms of skill and commitment, in the second period.

BURY: Shimmins, Whitehead, Smyth, Kennedy, Found, Blenkharn, Smithson, Robinson, Smith, I Webb, Bailey, Tippett, Leeming, Fielding, K Webb.

Tomorrow Bury have an open date. Their next league fixture is on March 10 when they entertain Ashton-under-Lyne at Radcliffe Road (kick-off 3pm).