Bedians Win Six(!) Pointer

Sat 27th Feb 2010, 02:00 PM
13 Garstang - Old Bedians 24

After another postponement in this fragmented season Garstang 1st team hosted a Manchester’s Old Bedians in a classic 6 pointer (despite only 2pts for a win)!

The home side was near full strength only missing John Robby and Rob Charles with Ainsley Pye returning to the starting lineup and the home side were confident of putting in a strong performance.

Garstang started well playing against the wide in the blustery and cold conditions putting the visitors under pressure around the ruck and at the set piece. From a 5 metre scrum on the Bedians line it looked like Garstang would take the first score firstly from Jimmy Rich attacking from the base of the scrum before they nearly went over in the corner. Unfortunately a poor pass resulted in an interception and this allowed the visitors to attack.

From this the away team started to put Garstang under more pressure and scored the first points of the day breaking the try line, (0-5). This stung Garstang into action and they upped their effort levels. The game was settling in to a tough forwards battle with both sides turning over the ball on regular occasions. During this time Garstang got a penalty in front of the posts and took the points on offer, (3-5).

This seemed to stir the opposition more than Garstang it Old Bedians looked more threatening this was not helped when Orr was sent to the sin bin for a harsh infringement and Old Bedians took the opportunity to stretch the lead to 3-12.

In the second half, the Manchester outfit kept up the pressure and the home side struggled to get the ball out to their back line and as their intensity dropped Old Bedians crossed twice more to put themselves 3-24 in front.

Garstang came back strongly in the last quarter of the game as they played the ball wider and attacked from greater depth. Under greater pressure at the rucks the away team angered the referee and was duly reduced to 13men as they habitually infringed. Garstang back at 15 took advantage of this and scored two tries late on, by Jimmy Rich and Orr respectively. These were rewards for the efforts of the forwards and even then Garstang squandered a couple of chances to reduce the deficient further.

The game finished 13-24 and gave the vital two points to the Manchester outfit. Garstang will have the chance to get the points back next week in the return fixture but they will have to play a lot harder and not wait till the last 20 mins to attack if they hope to turn the result around.

After the game Captain for the day Max said "This is bitterly disappointing and on the day only one team put in a good performance and deserved to win. The challenge is to train hard this week, learn from the defeat and turn the tables next weekend."

Team B. Coreless, M. Barnes (N. Smith), D. Miller, R. Orr, K. Yates, G. Rabee (B. Kelsall), G. Slater, J. Richardson, P. Brown, A. Pye, R. Bell, M. Everest (Capt), A. Emmott, A. Nixson, A. Winkler