Bedford Athletic lost 26-20 at home to Letchworth on another tough day at Putnoe Woods, with the Ath remaining in ninth in the Regional One South East standings.
Despite the close scoreline, Letchworth were comfortable winners as although Bedford Athletic had periods of possession, they were generally too inaccurate to seriously threaten their visitors for the win.
The visitors were the ones to open the scoring when stole a lineout and from there, they were able to launch a wave of attacks that brought them up to and over the home side’s try line, with prop Oscar Robinson bundling over.
Bedford Athletic showed what they could do when they won their own line out ball, launching a response although these ended with a scrum to the away side. Nevertheless, they shunted the visiting pack backwards and from the space that opened up, scrum half Michael Trigg darted over for the try, converted by Leo Mortimer.
The home side kept the pressure up and when Trigg took a quick tap penalty from in front of the posts, Letchworth were penalised for not retreating ten metres and back row Luke Mongston was sin binned.
Mortimer kicked the penalty for the lead but thereafter, Bedford Athletic were unable to exploit the man advantage. An attacking lineout was lost and the next attack turned over by a steadfast Letchworth defence.
Returned to full numbers, Letchworth responded by winning several penalties, kicking one to touch five metres from the home side’s try line.
A rumbling lineout drive was crossing the line with ease when the visiting hooker dropped the ball in the act of scoring leaving Bedford Athletic with a 10-7 advantage.
From the clearance, Letchworth attacked again although this time a Felix Mallalieu intercept might have brought a scoring chance for the home side except for the fact the ball was kicked dead from the half way line.
Instead from the scrum, Letchworth broke through the home defence with winger Kaz Henderson bulldozing over for his side’s second try under the posts that Sharp converted.
Another kick from the home side went dead and they were lucky not to concede again from the resulting scrum, this time the attack was hauled down and turned over by Eldon Craven to keep the score to 14-10 at half time.
Playing against the wind in the second half, Bedford Athletic initially struggled to break out of their own half, but a strong break by Mallalieu eventually earned them territory and although the same player seemed to be tackled high in the act of scoring, Craven was on hand to pick up and dive over for a try in the corner that gave Bedford Athletic a 15-14 lead.
Straight from the kick off, the home side conceded a five metre line out, and Letchworth carried hard through a series of phases and back row Mongston made up for his time off the park by scoring with Sharp converting to make the score 21-15 with half an hour to play.
When they did have possession it was not long before Bedford Athletic either over committed, misplaced the pass or dropped the ball and therefore their pressure was never for long enough to create a scoring chance.
Letchworth had the next opportunity when a penalty kick at goal went wide. From the drop out another kick went deep into the home side’s half, and thanks to swift hands from the away side, full back Charlie Parkhouse dotting down the bonus point try.
Bedford Athletic tried to get back into the game; a couple of breaks from Trigg gave them some momentum but even from set plays where the home side were generally dominant in the scrum, the move soon broke down without many phases being achieved.
Visiting scrum half Harvey Howman was sin binned for illegally halting an attack close to his own line in the final ten minutes and Bedford Athletic made the extra man pay with Mallalieu finding the gap to dart through and score but it was too late for anything but a losing bonus point.
The defeat keeps Bedford Athletic firmly in the bottom four of the table with one trip left this year away to Old Northamptonians this weekend.
Words by Jeremy Tyrrell
