Bracknell’s victory over Gravesend and Westcliff loss at Wimbledon last Saturday meant that Westcliffe were relegated from the National leagues. It was one of those quirks of the fixture list that meant Bracknell’s next game was at Westcliff.

Bracknell were forced to re juggle their back line from the one that appeared last Saturday, due to injuries, absences and illness. Andy Slade coming in at full back and Jack Conway moving to centre.

The first half started with Bracknell playing into the slight breeze. Neither side could generate enough sustained possession to test the other. A series of knock-ons and unforced errors meant that the momentum was lost at the critical stage.

With Westcliff perhaps enjoying the better chances it was Bracknell that broke the deadlock just before half time. From a line out the Bracknell pack drove the ball forward before releasing it to allow Ben Yates to come off his wing and cut a line through the Westcliffe defence to score by the posts. Conversion was kicked by Lachlan Valentine.

Half time 0-7.

The scores were to be equal almost immediately after half time after Bracknell failed to deal with the kick off. From resultant scrum Westcliffe winger Jack Gray was able to brush off a number of Bracknell tackles to score under the Bracknell posts. Conversion was kicked by scrum half Harry Branch.

With the promised showers now falling , Ally Walton seized on a chance to make a break by a ruck, darted up the field to score his first 1XV try. Lachlan Valentine unable to kick the .conversion. 7-12.

With almost half of the second half gone Bracknell scored their third try. With Coach Daniel ap Dafydd skilfully managing the bench, it was a fresh Jonny Mirza that was able to bulldoze his way up the Westcliff flank to touch down in the corner. Lachlan Valentine unable to kick the .conversion from out wide. This seemed to silence the vocal and good natured home crowd, well for a minute at least!

Neither side where to trouble the scorers further. Bracknell did have to soak up some late Westcliff pressure which saw Joe Pickett yellow carded.

Final score: Westcliff 7 – Bracknell 17 (Points: Westcliff 0 – Bracknell 4).

The man of the match went to the excellent Lachlan Valentine. next Saturday Bracknell play host to East Grinstead at Lily Hill in the final 1XV home game of the season (KO 3pm). Please come down and support the team. A pre match lunch is available to book please contact Steve Ward.

Bracknell: 1:Joe Pickett 2: Jasper Miranda 3:Jonny Mirza ( c ) 4:Leo Bailey 5.Jame Wright 6:Tom Field 7:Liam Goodison 8:Lachlan Valentine 9:Ally Walton 10: George Elliott 11:Ben Yates 12: Danz Faamatuainu 13: Jack Conway 14:Stuart Mackay 15: Andy Slade Subs: Tom Williams, Stuart Silvester , Tom Devereux

Pete’s Predictions
Going back to week 23 I managed to predict 6 out of 7 with Chichester’s home win against Westcombe Park being the surprise result of the week. Other than that the results went the way of the form book.

Had I had the chance to predict this week’s results I can say with a good level of certainty that I would have got 6 out of 7 again. There is no way that I would have predicted yet another draw for London Irish. Despite suggesting a couple of weeks ago that I should be predicting draws for Irish it seems such long odds as to be a wasted prediction but Irish have now drawn against all 4 of the other teams in the top 5.

Promotion candidates.
So far on their tough run in to the season London Irish Wild Geese have picked up 13 points from a possible 20 which is good enough I believe, for them to make the playoffs even if they don’t retain top spot. With Tonbridge Juddian collecting 19 points from 20 over the same period you will see why the gap at the top of the table has narrowed to just 3 points. If you take TJ’s superior points difference this amounts to Irish having just a 2 point lead going into the last 2 games

When Irish host Tonbridge Juddian next week the sparks are going to fly as they battle it out for top spot and automatic promotion with the losers almost certainly taking the play-off spot

Win of the week
In week 23 there was just one stand out result although Bracknell’s win away at Gravesend was very welcome here in Berkshire. Only one side beat opposition above them in the league and as usual – it was the one result that thwarted my hopes of a clean sweep of predictions so Chichester’s home win against Westcombe Park was “Win of the Week” at a canter.

This week (week 24) is less obvious. Losing bonus points on the road for Wimbledon, Chichester and Colchester against opposition well above them in the league show how well these 3 sides are finishing the season but “Win of the Week” needs….well, a win to be a contender. It’s not very often that this award gets won by default but this week it just might.

The 3 sides in the top half of the league (East Grinstead, Shelford and Tonbridge) who scraped home wins against lower half of the league opposition may well be relieved with their wins but they underperformed by the form book. Guernsey must have expected to beat relegated Gravesend and Westcombe Park was never going to be the venue for Eton Manor’s first win of the season so there is only one other winner left to consider. I predicted Bracknell’s win at Westcliff as indeed I predicted their win at Gravesend last week but they were both away games and certainly last week there were still some relegation battle nerves in the air. So, partially by discounting the others, but also with a nod of recognition, this week’s “Win of the Week” goes to Bracknell for their second consecutive away win, in or near relegation territory to secure safety at Level 5

Relegation worries.
There are no longer any more relegation worries for this season as the relegation places were mathematically decided last week. As I predicted at Christmas the bottom 3 then are the bottom 3 now and their points difference confirms that there should be no real feeling of injustice.

Next week’s fixtures – week 25 out of 26
As I have already mentioned the automatic promotion place could well be decided as Tonbridge travel to London Irish. A win for Irish would see them promoted as champions. A win for Tonbridge would set them up nicely for a last game of the season home win promotion celebration even though Chichester will be no walkover. A draw however, which is not beyond the realms of possibility would leave Irish needing a win in at Guernsey in the last game of the season and they will not want to have to rely on that.

The places at the bottom may be done and dusted but automatic promotion is all to play for

With a good chance that I could get the majority of these wrong here we go with my predictions for week 25 in league fixture list order

Away win
Away win
Home win
Away win
Home win
Draw (I just couldn’t resist it)
Away win

Go BRFC