Bridgnorth 8
Lawnswood Old Dixonians 7
BRIDGNORTH RFC firsts won a closely contested contest against Lawnswood Dixonians on Saturday in what was ultimately a very exciting match played on a sticky Edgar Davies ground.
Bridgnorth welcomed several players back into the side, including Chris Geyton at prop, and the home side soon opened the scoring through a good kick ahead from Danny Markevics, which led to the ball being passed through several hands before flanker Craig Thomas crashed over wide out. Although the conversion was missed, Bridgnorth continued to press hard for further points, and this left them vulnerable at the back, when they had to defend the Dixonians’ strong attacks.
Dixonians scored their try through a similar forward rush when their outside centre chipped through cleverly to score under the posts, to put Dixonians in front, where they remained for most of the match.
The tightly fought match was controlled admirably by young North Midlands referee Ben Ward, who impressed everyone with his fitness, clear decision making, and competent approach. The teenager was being assessed by Bill Melrose from the North Midlands Referees Society, and on this showing, Ben did look to have a great future in the game.
Although both sides did have one player sent to the sin bin, this did not affect the overall tempo of the game, with Dixonians pack initiating some great drives, and running up against the resolute Bridgnorth defence.
This Bridgnorth side is starting to show some real spirit, and although the backs do look a bit unbalanced out wide, it is great to see both the Markevics brothers back in this side. This now gives the backline several options in their play, and they did perform some really exciting moves with the mercurial full back Farrington coming in and out of the line at will.
There is no doubt that new coach Richard Wood is really getting to grips with this team. He has been a real find for the club and looks to be building a young, fit and very competitive side. Bridgnorth’s overall fitness has also improved, and they came on quite strongly at the end of this game, and were able to force a difficult penalty chance wide out with just five minutes to go. Although full back Farrington had not taken any place kicking up to this point, he coolly slotted the ball between the posts to take the lead back and also take the points.
There were several candidates for Tanners man of the match, with Watson, Chattoe and Rawlings playing well, but in the end the Tanners Man of the Match was No 8 Martin Jones. Although the match was very exciting, there were a lot of unforced errors on both sides, and Bridgnorth are improving steadily and slowly reducing these as the weeks go by.
