Old Bristolians 43 Midsomer Norton 31
Norton began well as the opening minutes saw them knocking on the door straight away, a few penalties were kicked to the corner, but the Bristolians’ defence held firm. However, it wasn’t long until Norton scored, outside centre and altitude specialist, Hugh Jeffery, cut a great line with ball in hand to touch down under the posts to take the lead for his side.
Norton flanker, Sam Church, managed to gather a loose lineout throw then used serious pace to capitalise and score Norton’s second try. Try scorer, Jeffery, was then sin binned for a deliberate knock-on close to his line. Credit to Old Bristolians who took full advantage of the extra man, running in three tries during this ten minute period.
Old Bristolians then set about getting a foothold on the match, using their heavy but somewhat mobile pack, sucking in the Nor defence while their fly half conducted his backs well to create space out wide; this was clearly the home side’s best chance of running in tries.
With the momentum all with Old Bristolians, Norton received a kick-off and immediately made a break down the right-hand touch line, Connor Schuster came close to scoring, but was tackled short before Captain, Fear, crashed over from five metres.
Further tries from Norton’s Sam Church and Jeffery followed, but it was Old Bristolians who had the last laugh. Old B’s full back caused real problems in the Nor defence, as he used great pace and power to score with five minutes to play, securing the win for the Home side, 43–31.
A well-deserved victory for the Old Bristolians side who put in a great shift for the full eighty minutes, whilst Norton will be disappointed with lapses in concentration in defence on numerous occasions during the second half.