Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 39- Hertford 11

The home side started strongly, winning the first drop out and earning a penalty, as Hertford failed to release a tackled player. Stortford chose to kick for touch but could only knock on at the lineout. Great pressure on the Hertford scrum half at the back of the resultant scrum by flanker, David Rose, however, forced the concession of another penalty and Tom Coleman this time opted for the 3 points, which he kicked with confidence for a 3-0 lead 4 minutes into the game. Six minutes later and the home side's lead was extended by 7 points when openside, Richard Gill touched down from an inside pass from winger, Jimmy Rea, as a poor defensive kick from Hertford was run back. Coleman duly converted. Stortford continued to have the better of the game, but it was another 15 minutes before the next score, when Coleman registered another 3 points, following a penalty and yellow card against Hertford's number 3 for a cynical offence at a breakdown. The visitors were still a man short when Stortford fullback, Sam Winter scored his side's second try 32 minutes into the game, taking a short pass from centre, John Stocker, capitalising clinically on space provided by a pinpoint long pass from Coleman. The flyhalf's conversion attempt flew narrowly wide, leaving the score at 18-0. It took only three minutes for Hertford to fight back with a penalty from flyhalf, Stuart Smart, as the home side attempted an optimistic chip kick out of their own 22 and then offended in trying to retrieve possession. Within a further 2 minutes, though, Stortford had extended their lead to 20 points, when winger, Wayne Child touched down after fielding a grubber kick from Rea, as the home backs started to cut loose. Coleman extended the margin by two with a good conversion. The final score of the half, however, went to the visitors, as Stortford conceded a penalty on their own 22 and Smart once again hit the target to take the halftime score to 25-6.

The second half started fairly slowly - both sides, perhaps feeling the effects of the extreme heat - and 16 minutes had passed before the first score again fell to the home side, as Wayne Child scored his second try. He had to round his opposite number to touch down out wide, as Coleman improvised a crosskick to his winger, when he came under pressure in midfield. The flyhalf kicked the conversion from the touchline to widen the margin to 26 points. Hertford, belatedly, now started to exert a bit of pressure and after some 12 minutes were finally able, despite some determined defending by the home side, to force their way over for a try by their No 8, Torran Macdougall off their third 5 metre scrum. The conversion was missed. Stortford, perhaps stung into renewed vigour by conceding the try, fought back with a closing try by Coleman, rounding off an excellent move started in his own 22 by hooker, Scott Romaine and taken on by Rea and scrumhalf, Arran Mahoney, who committed the final defender to give his Captain a clear run at the line from some 30 yards out. His conversion took the final score to 39-11, with the final 7 minutes of the game passing without great incident.

Despite the encouraging progress made over last week's performance, the Stortford squad will be looking for yet further improvements ahead of next week's fixture at Westcombe Park, whose early results suggest that the Kent side will be pressing hard to try and get straight back up to National 2 for next season.