Hertford 50 - Bracknell 18

The last time these two sides met at Lily Hill it was Bracknell that ended eventual winners 19-32 despite trailing to Hertford 8-12 at half time. Since then Hertford have defeated Tonbridge Judd’s and London Irish in the league. The team knew that they would face a hard task in their opening game of 2016. And so it proved!

Hertford took an early lead with a penalty and extended this lead with a try from winger James Solomon which was converted by fly half Stuart Smart. 10-0

Bracknell responded with a try from full back Ben Yates, the conversation being missed. Hertford countered almost immediately with a try from second row Jack Elston; again the conversion being missed. 15.-5

Bracknell now where to enjoy their best period of the match as Herford started to start to lose momentum. A penalty saw the deficit cut to 15-8. Another Ben Yates try out on the right flank meant the half time score was 15-13.

It was now Hertford’s turn to enjoy their best period of the match, within eight minutes of the restart prop Louis Castiglione opened the try scoring. Conversion was good. 23-13

Hertford now added further try’s to the score line from James Solomon , second row James Keen and winger Paddy Kelly to leave the score line at 43-13.

With the rain pouring down Bracknell managed a late score from George Milligan, again the conversion was missed. Unfortunately there was still enough time on the clock for Hertford to score one final converted try.

Final score: Hertford 50 Bracknell 18 (Points: Hertford 5 Bracknell 0)

Bracknell now face a very tricky fixture next Saturday at home to league leaders Tonbridge Juddian. Kick off is 2.15pm so please come down and support the lads in this first home fixture of 2016.

Above photo from Hertfordshire Mercury

Bracknell 1:Joe Pickett 2:Stuart Silvester (C) 3:Tom Williams 4:Kenny Barry 5.Leo Bailey 6:George Milligan 7:Tom Deveraux 8:Lachlan Valentine 9:Lewis Dennet 10:Liam Hemming 11:Sakeasi Yabia 12:Ben Nowak 13:Joe Price 14:Ian Burch 15:Ben Yates Subs: Robert Baragwanth Liam Goodison Jack Conway

Pete’s Predictions
For the first time this season my predictions last week were spot on. A clean sweep of home wins gave me a clean sweep of correct predictions. Even though this was perhaps one of the easier set of fixtures to predict, Westcombe Park's fixture was tricky to call and their home advantage win topped off a good week.

Promotion candidates.
East Grinstead were the only side in the top 5 to lose ground against their fellow promotion challengers but there is still some way to go, so while they will be disappointed, they are still in the hunt. Agreed, it used to be the top 4 but Hertford’s persistence means that I can’t discount them just yet.

Win of the week.
Because I predicted 7 home wins it goes without saying that there were no surprises and consequently no stand out candidates for "Win of the Week". Worthy of mention (I'm sorry to say) is Hertford's drubbing of Bracknell and Colchester will be mightily relieved to have held out at home at what may be a resurgent Chichester in the upper echelons of the relegation zone. Because it was my most difficult prediction last week and there is also the outside chance that it will have an effect on the final promotion places, "Win of the Week" goes to Westcombe Park as they do the "double" over East Grinstead. Congratulations to all those over Orpington way.

Relegation worries
Eton Manor kept the score down on their trip to the Channel Islands – other sides have already and probably will again – ship more points over there before the season is over and while Chichester nearly nicked it at Colchester both Gravesend and Westcliff kept scores against stronger opposition to a respectable level. This however, does very little to help their respective causes and with each game that get ticked off the list, relegation looms ever larger. With Chichester proving that they are not willing to go down without a fight it could well be the current bottom 3 who take the drop.

Next week’s fixtures
Here are my predictions for next weeks league fixtures in order.
Away win
Away win
Home win
Away win
Away win
Home win
Home win

Go BRFC