Bedford Athletic were 41-31 bonus point winners over Olney in Regional Two Midlands East on Saturday (21 March), but remain fourth in the division after Broadstreet in third beat leaders, Market Harborough.
The game was significant for marking the 300th first team appearance for Ben Middleton as well as the 150th for Andy Ince and the 100th for Lewis Sharp.
The match started brightly, with winger Josh Cassell intercepting an Olney attack and setting in motion a passage of play which ended with back row Lucas Nisbett-Hadaway winning the race to the try line for the opening try; fly half Leo Mortimer adding the conversion in the fourth minute.
Bedford Athletic looked like they were settling into their patterns of play, as a series of drives carried play deep into the Olney 22 and allowed prop forward Ryley Longmuir to crash over for the second try in the eighth minute, Mortimer again adding the conversion.
Matters began to unravel a little when a clearance kick was poorly followed up allowing Olney to recover the ball, and through a combination of full back, Max Hubbard and winger Joe German, run the ball back through the whole of the visiting side for a score under the posts.
Nevertheless, Bedford Athletic seemed to be retaining the upper hand when Rob Watkins stole a home lineout on the hosts 22 and several phases later, was on hand to run the try in down the left wing with Mortimer’s conversion extending the lead to 21-7 on 17 minutes.
Thereafter, Bedford Athletic started to struggle.
At first, they couldn’t clear their lines, although they had multiple chances to do so, as Olney kept coming back at them to take advantage of a number unforced errors.
Eventually, they were running hard at the visiting try line and it was scrum half, Ethan Chambers who beat the covering tacklers to pull a try back on 26 minutes.
Bedford Athletic continued to display a lack of urgency and a continuation of errors meant they found themselves forced further and further back into their own half, until Olney hooker Ben Edwards burrowed over for a try on 37 minutes.
Fuller’s conversion made the score 21-19.
It was a half that Bedford Athletic had started with cohesion and purpose, but then allowed the error count to grow and the work rate plummet, meaning that a distinct lack of urgency allowed Olney into the game as they profited from the visitors’ mistakes.
Bedford Athletic looked to have tightened up at the start of the second half, as a series of powerful drives saw Watkins cross for the bonus point try converted by Mortimer on 44 minutes.
The visitors still struggled to get any fluency into their game, and when the opportunity arose they now started to kick penalties for points to build score board pressure.
The first effort hit the post, before Mortimer was successful on 53 minutes.
Immediately, Olney caught the kick off ran round the visiting defence, and again crossed the line without a hand being laid on them for a try for replacement back, Dan Frossell a minute later. Fuller made it 31-26.
Mortimer again kicked a penalty to gain a two score advantage at 34-26 on 66 minutes, but still Bedford Athletic let the advantage slip, as from a midfield scrum for Olney again exploited the wide channels for a second try to winger, German.
The conversion was missed leaving the lead at 34-31.
In response, Bedford Athletic tightened up their game and drove hard at the Olney line.
Forcing several penalties – and with a dominant scrum and lineout – they should have scored when camped on the Olney line, but eventually knocked the ball on.
They won a free kick at the next scrum and from the free kick it was prop Longmuir who charged over for the try that secured the win; Mortimer’s conversion taking him to 16 points in the match.
In the context of the season, it keeps the side in fourth place trailing Broadstreet by five points with two games to play ahead of the visit of bottom club Wellingborough to Putnoe Woods on Friday (27 March) with a 7.30pm kick off.
Words by Jeremy Tyrrell
