Avonmouth Old Boys (AOB) travelled to Lily Hill Park for the first ever game between the two clubs in search of their first point of the season and at half time they looked like they would be heading down the M4 with 5 of them. Having scored 3 tries and leading 24 – 13 at half time the Bristol side must have been thinking that their fortunes in the league were about to take a turn for the better.

At the final whistle however, Bracknell had managed to turn things around to take the 5 points that the form book had predicted – but the resultant 2nd place in the league didn’t come anywhere near as easily as they might have thought it would.

It may be partly due to the fact that the form book predicted a home win that Bracknell allowed the opposition to outplay them so completely in the first half but it may be that every side in this league has something to offer and should never be discounted. Either way, the Bracknell side need to learn from their first half performance.

The game started with a mixture of both successful and missed penalties from both sides bringing the score to 3 – 3 after 20 minutes with Liam Prescott having mixed fortunes with the boot. The referee imposed strict control on the game and soon after Kenny Barry’s yellow card in the 19th minute the away side were the first to cross the line. A deft kick slotted through the Bracknell defence was touched down by AOB for a converted try. 3 – 10.

5 minutes later, a good series of attacking phases that forced a yellow card offence from an AOB forward, Ken Dowding crashed over for his 3rd try in 3 games for Bracknell and the feeling among the Lily Hill faithful was that the any early complacency from the home side would be short lived. 8 – 10. If only that had been the case…..

Following the missed conversion that would have brought Bracknell back on terms the next 4 scores were to come from the away side. AOB’s no 9 found a massive gap in the Bracknell defence for a try that would be converted and just 2 minutes later AOB’s innocuous clearance kick landed in no man’s land and the bounce fell to their winger who ran untouched to the far left hand corner for a try that AOB’s no 15 converted from the touch line. 8 – 24.

Having reached the half time break on equal terms for 3 games so far this season and having been ahead by 4 points in the other game I can only imagine that the Bracknell changing room was a rather unpleasant place to be. Not once under coach Rory Greenslade-Jones’ tenure has Bracknell found themselves this far in arrears at half time.

Any reprisal wasn’t instant however and after a try from Craig Fillier raised the spectre of a comeback the missed conversion and an away side penalty meant that deficit was only reduced by 2 points to 13 – 27 with the clock ticking away. The home side were then thankful to watch AOB miss another penalty attempt.

At this point the home support were becoming despondent, the opposition were believing the dream and certain people were beginning to regret the fact that their predictions were so widely reported and decided to resort to alcohol.

Had we all known that Bracknell would score 20 unanswered points in the final 20 minutes of the game we could all have relaxed but the points were hard fought and didn’t come without incident. Bracknell’s forwards had been slowly gaining ascendancy throughout the match but it was only in the final quarter that they started to turn the screw. Front row dominance in the scrum became contagious and led to the home side gaining the upper hand in all aspects of forward play. Not unlike last week, the opposition were forced into killing the flow of the game and were duly penalised by the referee who issued two more yellow cards to the visitors.

Bracknell’s third try was just reward for the forwards who called for a scrimmage from a penalty and pressured the depleted AOB pack into conceding a penalty try , duly converted by Liam Prescott. 20 – 27.

Smart work in the back division gave Neil Higgins some space to stretch out down the right hand side and after a clever kick ahead from 30 metres out he was only beaten to the touchdown by Bracknell’s own George Milligan whose 2 tries in the last 2 games must now amount to a distance well in excess of 2 metres. Liam Prescott’s kicking boots were back on and the scores were levelled. 27 – 27.

Having been behind for the last 40 minutes Bracknell were in no mood to go behind again. Restarts were safely received, drills were carefully re-enacted and important territory was regained. Liam Prescott’s boot slotted the penalty that took a 3 point lead and extended that lead to 33 – 27 on the second of two further attempts. AOB seemed to have had the stuffing knocked out of them and being at least one player short for most of the final quarter were unable to muster a fight back.

It may be fair to say that the 5 – 1 league points allocation didn’t fully reflect the game but to the victor the spoils. Bracknell never matched the intensity or precision they showed against Amersham and Chiltern last week but mustered up the courage to fight back to keep their 100% home record intact.

Bracknell – Jonny Mirza, Craig Fillier, Ken Dowding, Kenny Barry, Ollie Taylor, Matt Brambley (C), George Milligan, Wesley Santos, Simon Cole, Liam Prescott, Chris Brember, Neil Higgins, Tom Saunders, Stuart Mackay, Daniel Antonelli. Subs – Joe Clapson, Jonny Baugh, Ben Nowak, Alfie Warman.

Pete's Predictions

There were no stand out surprises in the results this week with Brixham being the only side in the National 3 South West league to have beaten a side above them and Amersham and Chiltern now sit below Brixham as a consequence

A home win for Lydney against The Rams after their slip up at Old Reds last week was always on the cards although it’s the scale of that win that should concern the other sides in the league.

Old Reds continue to chase our tails with their 4th win in a row after I had consigned them to a season long relegation battle after their week 1 loss to us at Lily Hill Park and also close behind us are our opponents next week – Barnstaple.

If at the outset of the season we’d been offered 2nd place after 5 games we’d have grabbed it with both hands, but it’s still early days. With our 3 closet rivals all having realistic chances of a win next week - Old Reds, Newton Abbot and Barnstaple (yes Barnstaple), Bracknell could end up in 6th place and we wouldn’t have to play badly to get there. No side has beaten Barnstaple at home yet this season so Bracknell really have their work cut out.

It’s a long way to go but any support will be welcome!!