Bedford Athletic continued their good form with a fourth straight victory in East Midlands Division Two, winning an entertaining affair 45-31 against old rivals, Olney under the Friday night lights at the Ath.
A fixture that dates back to the club’s first ever season in 1908-09 proved to be a try-filled encounter, with the hosts outscoring their visitors by seven tries to five.
Remarkably for only the third time in 15 years, the home side named an unchanged team, but this did not prevent a hesitant and error strewn start to the match.
These errors compounded to the point that from a midfield scrum, visiting full back, Struan Brooks sliced through the home defence for the opening score.
A thundering rolling maul won the home side territory and field position, but initially, further errors frustrated progress until from their own scrum, number eight Lucas Nisbett-Hadaway broke down the blind side and fed scrum half Dan Wiggins for the try on 14 minutes.
Louis Haley converted.
Bedford Athletic were quickly establishing set piece dominance, and the next try came from shunting the Olney pack off their own scrum ball, Wiggins seizing on the opportunity, Haley again converting.
The bad habits then briefly returned, with the home back line dropping the ball and allowing Olney to hack through and win the chase to regather possession; flanker Hector Stanbridge scoring the try.
Immediately, Bedford Athletic put pressure back on their visitors and this led to a charge down kick.
Seizing the opportunity, the home side quickly switched the play wide into space and winger Luke Denham scored the first of his three tries to extend the lead to 19-10 with 23 minutes played.
Both sides continued to have opportunities as the half progressed in what was developing into a running game full of attacking rugby.
Full back, Charlie Reed and Denham just failed to link up for what would have been a certain try down the right wing, and Olney twice failed to score making unenforced errors in the home side’s 22.
Olney looked the more likely to score next, until Bedford Athletic repelled an attack on the stroke of half time.
Full back, Brooks tried to run the clearance kick back but was isolated and turned over. The penalty was kicked deep to the Olney line, the lineout drive maul was illegally pulled down.
Bedford Athletic turned to their dominant scrum at the five metre penalty, but it turned out to be a double bluff as the ball was spun out to the backs for centre Steve Smith to cruise home for the bonus point try and a crucial 26-10 half time lead.
Crucial, because it was Olney who scored first straight after half time.
Once again, it was Brooks profiting from a poorly executed clearance kick and chase who used his pace and power to slice through the defence from 50 yards to score.
Scrum half, Charlie Hicks converted.
Bedford Athletic immediately rose to the challenge. Securing the kick off, Haley kicked a penalty to the corner and from the line out catch and drive Lewis Sharp touched down for the fifth try.
Minutes later, the backs showed they too could be clinical, opening the space for Luke Denham to score his second try; Haley converting to stretch the lead to 38-17.
The home side lost momentum when prop Ryan Taylor was sin binned on 53 minutes, but defended his ten minute absence vigorously.
Olney failed to profit, as their lineouts were stolen on two occasions by the indefatigable Rob Watkins, and even when the team conceded an unnecessary five metre scrum, the seven forwards held the push, turned the ball over and then won a penalty of their own.
This response culminated in a lightning counter attack that saw Denham speed away for his hat trick try under the posts, with Haley converting another.
Thereafter, Olney were the team dominating possession in the final quarter but were constantly frustrated by the home side’s defensive effort.
Although never under serious threat from structured play, the home defence was broken on two occasions by the lightening fast Brooks for a two further Olney tries; the second at the death in what proved to be an overly long second half.
This narrowed the eventual score to 45-31.
The first team continue Friday night encounters this coming weekend, as they travel to bottom club Wellingborough to complete the first half of the season.
Words by Jeremy Tyrrell
