Bracknell 29 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 22

Picking up where they'd left off last week against Hertford, Stortford totally dominated possession for the first 15 minutes of this midfield battle and shot into a 14-0 lead. The first try came after 7 minutes, when the visitors seized on a Bracknell turnover in midfield and an excellent half break by Joe Foster and pass inside, which was well taken by Tom Stokely was immediately fed to flying fullback, Jimmy Rea, who ran in under the posts from 40 yards out. Stokely, working his way infield from last week's appearance on the wing to inside centre further showed his versatility by slotting the conversion. Rea got his second try on the quarter hour mark, this time having only 10 yards to make to the line after an excellent outside break by flyhalf, Jack Knowles. Stokeley again converted. Shortly afterwards, only a blatant early tackle on Rea prevented another, potentially crucial incursion by the lively fullback. Despite a continuing inpressive performance by the Stortford pack at set scrums, the side unfortunately, failed to maintain their early dominance and a poorly protected ball at a tackle after 20 minutes led to a turnover, quickly fed to right winger, Ian Burch who took advantage of weak attempted tackles to weave his way over for a try from some 30 yards out. Centre, Ben Nowak converted to halve the Stortford lead. Lifted by this score, Bracknell now moved into ascendency and it was only a tremendous cover tackle by "action man", Dave Aldam that prevented another try on the half hour mark. Not to be denied, though, the home side maintained pressure, capitalising on Stortford's inability to use the elements to relieve pressure via the boot and eventually forced a penalty for side entry to a ruck,which Nowak kicked to take the score to 10-14. This is how it stayed to halftime, after the visitors missed a second kickable penalty just before the break.

Turning round to play with the breeze and slope in their favour, Bracknell wasted no time in gaining the lead for the first time with a second try to Burch, only 2 minutes into the half. Once again, the score resulted from a Stortford turnover and some more poor tackling. This was also a factor in Bracknell's third try scored after 9 minutes by flyhalf, Pucs Ngapaku, duly converted from under the posts by Nowak. Rather belatedly, Stortford now refound some of the spirit shown in the first half and a period of pressure on the Bracknell line led to a couple of penalties and a yellow card to Bracknell's wing, Alex Cannon for a high tackle, 15 minutes into the half. Unfortunately, Stortford were unable to capitalise on this situation and it took a howler in the Bracknell midfield some 11 minutes later to produce points for the visitors, as Stokely volleyed the loose ball forward and showed good pace to win the race for the ball, hack it on again and gather the ball to touch down. His conversion attempt, unfortunately went just wide. The decisive score of the game came 7 minutes later. Bracknell, capitalising on a penalty awarded harshly against a Stortford player for entering the side of a ruck,moved into the visitors' 22 and, from a resultant scrum, drove over the line for the bonus-point try, converted by Nowak. Despite the loss of prominent second row, Hamish Irving to an apparently serious ankle injury, Stortford fought back again with considerable spirit and Stokely registered another three points from a penalty for offside after 34 minutes. The visitors finished the game on the front foot, showing renewed dteremination - epitomised by debutant, Tom Banks, coming on as replacement scrum half and, despite his youth showing no undue respect for the very physical opposition, taking the ball up and making telling tackles. Bracknell's hard-tackling defence managed to hold out until the final whistle - though this task would have been significantly tougher, had their scrumhalf, Kitching been yellow carded, as he should have been after jumping high into a tackle with some 5 minutes still to go.

Overall, there was a lot to admire in Stortford's performance, with much spirit shown in a tough, physical game for extended periods. Scrummaging was good, although Stortford's edge in this department was largely neutralised by a combination of good, quick heels by Bracknell on their scrums and early breaking of their bindings by their back row on Stortford's - to which the referee seemed oblivious. With many players carrying injuries and a number playing out of position some good continuity in running through the phases was seen from the whole team, and sterling defence was put up for extended periods. All of this, unfortunately was undone, however, by a handful of individual errors in turning over ball in contact and failing to make crucial tackles. After their narrow win at home to Gravesend, Tring will next week be looking (like Bracknell today) to draw level with us in the league, so another tough game can be expected and our ever more depleted playing ranks will need to dig deep.