Bedford Athletic maintained a perfect start to their Regional Two Midlands East campaign with a 33-22 victory over Kettering on Saturday (4 October).
The Ath continue to defy their injury list in scoring five tries to the opposition’s four, securing a try bonus point and giving the side 20 points out of a possible 20 for the season so far.
Bedford Athletic dominated the early stages of the encounter, and were soon ahead in the fifth minute with the first try of the day scored by winger Archie Duncan.
On a windy, difficult day for kickers the conversion was missed.
The second try arrived in the 14th minute, this time finished by centre Luke Denham marking his 50th appearance for the first team.
This was converted by Leo Mortimer for a 12-0 lead.
The pace of the Bedford Athletic back line was making life very difficult for the visiting side, and the third try in the 22nd minute was once again scored by winger Duncan, with Mortimer converting.
Kettering did then get in on the act with their opening try, scored by winger Josh Luthayi. As the half wore on errors increasingly wove their way into the home side’s game, mainly in the form of penalties and this started to stifle momentum.
The try bonus point was secured by half time; centre Tom Davis adding the score which with Mortimer’s conversion gave Bedford Athletic a 26-5 half time lead.
Unlike in recent weeks, Bedford Athletic did not up their pace and intensity after half time.
Instead, it was Kettering who stormed back into the game with two tries; one from winger Tom Connolly and one from centre, Tom Owen and with one conversion, this narrowed the score to 26-17.
Full back, Louis Haley did restore a gap between the sides with a try on 49 minutes, again converted by Mortimer, but that was the final score for the home team.
With winger Archie Duncan and scrum half Michael Trigg off the field injured, and second row Harrison Riley soon to join them, the team again became unbalanced just as in the win at Peterborough with players playing out of position.
The cause was not helped by two yellow cards for Andy Ince and Lewis Sharp amidst a continuing stream of unnecessary penalties, and therefore it was the defensive effort marshalled by the evergreen Rob Watkins that came to the fore ably assisted by Lucas Nisbett-Hadaway.
This preserved the lead for Bedford Athletic, and when Kettering’s final try of the day came in the last minute scored by Luthayi, it was too little too late and a third missed conversion of the afternoon left the final score at 33-22 to the home side.
Bedford Athletic take their unbeaten record on the road again this Saturday (11 October) with a visit to Market Harborough with a 3pm kick off.
Words by Jeremy Tyrrell
