Wimbledon 57 Bracknell 13

Bracknell must have traveled to face Wimbledon in this first ever league meeting between the two sides, with some confidence as they had back to back wins under their belt for the first time in the season.

It was Wimbledon that enjoyed the opening phases. Playing with the freezing wind and slight slope ex Bracknell player Neil Hallett kicking a penalty. Wimbledon extended their lead through a try by No 8 Gary Crowe and conversion by Neil Hallett.

Bracknell were to be standing under their own posts again when an interception by second row Campbell Tait saw him canter in to score Wimbledon's second try of the day. Conversion was kicked, 13-0 with 15 minutes gone.

Bracknell rallied and started to apply some pressure of their own, it being helped in part by the sin binning of ex-Bracknell player Joe Clapson. Liam Hemming closing the Wimbledon lead with a penalty.

Bracknell continued to enjoy the better passages of the play from the re-start. Then the game changing moment, with a penalty already awarded to Bracknell, the referee determined some stamping had taken place by Bracknell that was serious enough not only to reserve the penalty but present a for a red card to last week’s man of the match, Kenny Barry.

Down to fourteen men any Bracknell come back looked unlikely! And so it proved Wimbledon making good use of the numerical advance secured their bonus point for four trys before half time and a further three trys after the break.

Late in the game Bracknell managed to cheer the, now freezing, travelling supporters with two late trys; one scored by Ben Yates following a swift move in the backs, the other scored by Lachlan Valentine – whose work rate during the game never dropped.. It was ex Bracknell player Nick Mallet that applied the final coup de gras scoring Wimbledon's final try under the Bracknell posts.

Final score Wimbledon 57 Bracknell 13 (Points: Wimbledon 5 Bracknell 0)

Rory and the team now need to regroup as they face Gravesend at Lily Hill Park next week. Please come and lend your to the team KO is 2.15pm plus there is also a pre-match lunch. To book contact Steve Ward.

Bracknell: 1:Harry Challenor 2:Stuart Silvester 3:Jonny Mirza ( c ) 4:Kenny Barry 5.Leo Bailey 6:James Wright 7:Jamie Rudkin 8:Lachlan Valentine 9:Jack Conway 10:Liam Hemming 11:Stuart Mackay 12:Dan Faamatuainu 13:Joe Price 14:Ian Burch 15:Ben Yates Subs: Jasper Miranda, Tom Deveraux, Lewis Dennet

Pete’s Predictions
Following yet another enforced break from Pete’s Predictions we find ourselves in week 10 (sorry, but this time it was a trip to Florida that I couldn’t take while the World Cup was on because I didn’t want to miss any England games in the knock-out stages……..) As I haven’t been able to keep up a week to week analysis of who’s on good run and who isn’t I think it will be useful to take a look back at form over the last 5 weeks. It goes like this…
5 out of 5 – no-one
4 wins – Irish and Wimbledon – that’s why Irish are (still) top and why Wimbledon have shaken off any early relegation worries
3 wins – Tonbridge, Westcombe Park, Shelford, Guernsey, Hertford and Colchester
2 wins – East Grinstead, Bracknell and Chichester
1 win – Gravesend and Westcliff
No wins – Eton Manor

Promotion candidates:
I still reckon the top 5 are all in with a shout although East Grinstead’s 2 wins from the last 5 means they need to turn things around a bit if they are to keep pressure on the others. Despite my prediction that London Irish would not stay top they are still there – but they have only played 2 of their top 4 fellow contenders and both of them at home. They drew at home against East Grinstead in a very unusual run of 3 consecutive home games so I still think they have been smiled on by the fixture fairy so far this season. They must have tougher games to come and we will then see they are made of.

Win of the week:
There was no blockbuster away win by any side and no-one beat anyone else significantly further above them in the league. Guernsey at home may have swapped places with Hertford but that was on the cards. Irish maintained their top spot by beating promotion contenders Westcombe Park but there were, as I think I may have mentioned before, at home. Westcliff won a significant away game at Eton Manor but this might have been predicted, had the result been the other way round that would have been different.
So, as much as this hurts “Win of the Week” goes to Wimbledon. The margin of the win looks impressive and to be honest I expected the game to be a lot closer. Ex Bracknell players Hallet and Clapson will be very satisfied with the day’s result but I think the margin was flattering. As Bracknell fought against a very strong breeze in the first half the game seemed to be in the balance for some time. A red card for raking an arm illegally holding the ball was interpreted as dangerous play and then 2 weak tries meant that when Bracknell got the backing of the elements in the second half they were a man down and the game had already got away from them. All the same, congratulations to Wimbledon – as you look through the results, theirs is the stand out win.

Relegation worries:
My last comment after week 7 was “While anyone in the bottom half of the table still has to be careful it appears to be more of a matter of who joins Eton Manor and Westcliff at the end of the table where no-one wants to be.”

Despite some very close games Eton Manor are still looking for their maiden level 5 win. Westcliff however have chalked up 2 wins in the last 2 games and other results have dragged Gravesend into the relegation zone with them. There’s a significant gap between Wimbledon in 8th on 27 points and Colchester in 9th on 18 so the bottom 6 are all still in the relegation fight.

Next week’s fixtures:
After week 7 I predicted an important win for Bracknell at Chichester in week 8 (apparently it was very close but I’ll take it) but I didn’t see Colchester beating East Grinstead, nor Guernsey beating Westcombe Park so my week 8 predictions were 5 out of 7 – that’s not bad when you go for 5 away wins out of 7 games!!!
Here are my predictions for week 11
Home win
Home win
Home win
Draw
Home win
Away win
Home win

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