Dings Crusaders 8 Bishop's Stortford 1st XV 34

It has to be said that the welcome received by us all at Dings - both before and after the match - was outstanding. Having said that, there was a decided edge to the early exchanges in the game as Dings, playing into the strong wind, made life hard for the visitors. Indeed, it was the home side that registered the first points of the match after 20 minutes, via a penalty goal by captain, Mark Woodrow after a series of decisions went their way. Stortford, though bounced straight back and some impressive, direct running and timely offloading by Tom Coleman, Mark McCraith and Marcus Cattell set up scrumhalf, Arran Mahoney for a try close to the posts, which Coleman easily converted. Although not exploiting the following wind in classical fashion, Stortford continued to dominate the game and, after 35 minutes they established position in the home 22 via an excellent Coleman kick and great chase by Mike Gallagher and Nick Hankin, forcing a cynical offence by the Dings scrumhalf, resulting in a yellow card. Stortford quickly exploited the one man advantage, with centre, Sam Winter crashing over for a try out on the left wing. Coleman's conversion attempt flew narrowly to the right of the posts. Within 8 minutes, though, the visitors were another 5 points ahead, following another telling Coleman positional kick and a tremendous chase by Gallagher. This time the ball was swung wide and a chip kick by Coleman was cleverly flyhacked over the try line by Nick Hankin for the fullback to dive on the ball for another unconverted try. This took the score at halftime to 3-17.

Although playing into the wind, Stortford started the second half even more convincingly and deservedly extended their lead via the bonus point-earning try from No 8, Mark McCraith after 15 minutes, as he touched down at the back of a strong driving maul. Coleman's conversion extended the lead to 21 points. Prop, Sean Edwards then went off injured and, responding in the best possible way to his greeting onto the pitch as replacement by a chorus from the home supporters of "roll on the barrel", Jimi Stanford proceeded to anchor an equally dominant scrum. The result was put beyond any possible doubt some 5 minutes later, when Hankin fielded a bouncing ball inside his own 22 and, having breeched the initial chasing line, proceeded to run the length of the pitch for a tremendous individual try to take the score to 3-29. Coleman's conversion attempt again flew narrowly wide, as it did once more some 5 minutes later, after replacement centre,, Jono Child ran in a fifth try out wide on the left, after the now tiring home defence had been stretched to breaking point by a number of phases of controlled, running rugby. Dings were undaunted, though and took full advantage of what looked like a harsh yellow card for Stortford's Sam Winter after 40 minutes , who was penalised for entering a ruck at the side, even though he appeared to drive a home player straight back over the ball. Despite the visitors' clear determination to hold their line intact, the home side launched wave after wave of attack and eventually created space for their right wing to score an unconverted consolation try out wide, as time ran out.

Stortford's traveling support, although weakened by the commitment of many of our regular away supporters to our annual fireworks night, was boosted on the day by the visit to Bristol of Lee Reed ( a survivor of Noel Smith's tuition at Hadham Hall) and his son, George who, as residents of Somerset represent a South Western outpost of the BSRFC supporters' club. We hope you'll be able to join us at Lydney on December 6th!