The first team endured a tough start to the New Year losing at home to Old Saltleians who bossed the match at Kelham Road through a big pack.

Despite the poor weather in the lead up to the opening match of 2025, the pitch was in good condition. The team welcomed back No 8 Sean Denning and fit-again wing Ovi Gilder made his return off the bench.

Old Salts, who used their forwards to negate Newark’s mobile style, started the brightest forcing a penalty inside two minutes which they converted from in front of the posts.

It took until the 27th minutes before either side could break the try scoring deadlock. Henry Allen made good ground down the right before offloading and the recycled ball was taken on strongly by Tom O’Leary before being moved at pace to the left.

A good offload under pressure by Noah Catley put Will Ellison into space and he found Alex Scott on his outside and the full- back scampered over to give the home side a slight advantage at 5-3.

Old Salts were exerting considerable pressure up front and forced a line-out some eight metres from the Newark line. It looked ominous and sure enough; the visitors secured the ball and drove over in the corner to regain the lead at 5-8.

It looked as though that was going to be the score going into half-time, but just before the break Old Salts won another penalty which they converted to give them a 5 - 11 lead.

Tries proved hard to come by for both sides in the second half until the 60th minute when the visitors forced a push over try. That was converted which gave the score line a different feel at 5 - 18.

However, Newark were not done yet and within a couple of minutes and from a line-out in their own half Old Salts tried to run the ball out but the Newark defence was up quickly.

Their second row tried a speculative offload in midfield, but it was snapped up by the alert Henry Allen in midfield and no one was going to catch him and he went in under the posts. Scott converted to bring Newark to within one score at 12 - 18.

As much as they tried Newark could not find another try and it was Old Salts who had the final word by forcing a scrum on the five-metre line. Again, they used their considerable size to push forward forcing Newark to collapse and the referee had no option but to award a penalty try.

Newark team: Hosking, Fern, Wright, Ellison, Wilby, O’Leary, Dodders (C), Denning, Tarbatt, Catley, Williams, Waqalevu, Walton, Allen, Scott, subs White, Jackson, Gilder.
Tries - Scott, Allen.
Conversion: Scott.