Fixtures away at Bowdon have been tricky affairs over the past few seasons for Douglas.
With a shuffled deck following victory over Northwich last time out, it made the prospect of bucking that losing trend even trickier.
Hoddinott, Kirkpatrick and Oldfield all missed out in the forward pack whilst there was no Snellgrove or McCord to influence in the backline.
Charlie Henthorn was unable to travel, so even more shuffling occurred and Blake Everson, who has impressed since coming into the squad, was asked to do a job at inside centre with Cringle coming onto the bench.
Come Back
If recent away performances were to be a guide, Douglas had come back from poor starts against Sandbach and Burnage to cause real problems in the second half, but by which time they were chasing a deficit.
Bowdon would be a different prospect if Douglas let the game slip away in the opening half, and Bowdon showed why they have had such a good start to their season and scored a flurry of tries in the opening half an hour.
While the Douglas scrum was sending Bowdon backwards, the lineout was also an opportunity for good first phase possession, but all Douglas had to show for their endeavours was a penalty slotted by Nathan Robson.
Douglas lost the tireless tackling of Percy Hampton to a shoulder injury, only just after he’d had his head patched up following a clash of heads with the Bowdon left wing.
Just before the half time whistle, Douglas had some sustained possession in the Bowdon 22 but a speculative pass out wide was intercepted by the Bowdon fly-half who ran the length to score despite Callum Dentith’s desperate chase. The half time score was 43-3.
Second Half
Into the second half and it was up to Douglas to decide what to take from the game.
Not committing to tackles and jogging around the pitch between breakdowns would be the easy way out, but the introduction of Phil Cringle gave Douglas some impetus and a much-needed voice on the field.
With him sharing the first receiver duties with Josh Duncan, Douglas did offer some go forward with ball in hand, but it wasn’t until Bowdon extended their lead that Douglas got themselves over the try line.
After a penalty kicked to the corner, the lineout ball slipped through the hands of Blake Snell to the grateful Harry Cartwright who crashed through three tackles and dotted down.
Injuries Stack
Douglas had more time with the ball now, but Bowdon were much more clinical with theirs.
Bowdon added two final tries before Douglas finished the scoring with arguably the best worked try of the game.
Cringle in at first receiver took the ball by his boot laces which seemed to check the onrushing defence.
His flick pass was timed to perfection as Kyle Martin charged through an inside gap like a train and looked as though he may have found a path through the scrambled Bowdon covering tackles.
After being stopped just short he popped the ball to Blake Everson who grabbed the final consolation score.
The full time score was Bowdon 67-15 Douglas.
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