Successful return to Chess Valley

There was however some trepidation as Bracknell had been soundly beaten the previous year, and looking at the size of the home team it looked like pretty much the same set of boys.

A morning of late cry offs through illness continued once at the ground with some boys reporting to be a little out of sorts, so it was a slightly re-arranged team that started the game off.

The size of the home team translated itself quite formidably in the scrums where they started with quite clear dominance, and indeed the first Bracknell scrum around the half way line was overpowered and their burly No8 picked up from the base and opened the scoring with barely a minute on the clock.

However, whatever troubles they experienced in the scrum, the boys certainly made up for in their appetite for defence with some superb back foot work, and expertly pressure applied on the home teams backline. 10 mins in and despite a struggling tight scrum and a challenging start at the breakdown, the boys had pulled two tries back, through Jamie and Alex, both from some distance out and beating a considerable number of defenders on the way to the line.

Chess Valley pulled one try back, and then Alex finished off a fine team drive up the park, to edge the boys in front once again.

Thereafter for what must have been close to 10 minutes, the home side battered away on the Bracknell line, only to be repelled time and time again with incredibly gutsy defence, before the boys finally ran out of defenders and Chess pulled the scores level on the stroke of half time.

Unfortunately the severe cross wind made conversions extremely tricky all game, so at 3 tries each, the score was 15-15.

So half time found the team with great resolve, and having endured quite a torrid, but successful, first half they found themselves on level terms and turning around to play downhill against a very heavy team. Despite the almost continuous injuries and illnesses being managed, there was much optimism and intent within the group.

Straight away in the second half, Bracknell attacked down the slope, and within a couple of minutes, the team worked the ball wide to Alex, in space, to run in under the posts. James added the Conversion.

It is fair to say that a combination of a tiring home side, and an emboldened Bracknell team produced a far more equal second half, and mid-way through the period Alex grabbed his fourth from an extremely unlikely position. From a retreating scrum in his own 22m, the ball shot out to him standing on the blind side wing, quickly followed by the Chess Valley back row. From there he managed to escape their clutches, and in his particular style work his way up the pitch to stretch the lead to 27-15.

It was just a few miles from here, at Watford, that earlier this season we had seen one of our number butcher a try in what had previously been assumed to be the simple act of applying downward pressure with the ball once over the try line. There must be something about these parts, as it happened again. Darting off down the blindside, this player crossed the line un-opposed whereupon he decided to make the kick a little easier – which in itself was not a bad idea. The bad idea was to attempt a big dive when the covering defence got close, as he was caught in the air and the sixth try was not completed.

Chess Valley subsequently grabbed a late converted try, but the game ended with Bracknell applying more pressure.

Full marks to the Bracknell lads for coming away with a far better performance than the previous year, showing tremendous character and resilience, particularly with their first half defence, which ultimately set them up for the win.