Norton started this rearranged game by playing down the slope, but into a strong northerly breeze. They seemed slow to start, with a number of unforced errors and their lineout misfiring, these unusual errors allowed Cheltenham to take the lead with an early penalty.
Strong running from ball carriers Mitchard, Denning and Jeffery took the ball deep into the heart of the visitors’ defence. At one stoppage, Norton reacted the quicker of the two sides – the ball was fed to scrum-half Schuster, who sniped over the line to collect the home side’s first points. With the conversion kicked, Norton took a 7-3 lead.
Through the boot of fly-half Abbott, Norton now started to control some field position, and a 5m line-out was won at the front by captain, Fear. From the following drive, prop, Bicknell, received the ball at the back of the maul. He slid off the side to score the team’s second try, taking the score to 12-3.
Cheltenham fought back to score a converted try before the break, closing the gap to two points.
The second half saw forwards Rose, Button and Knight carrying hard. These runs forced a penalty from the defenders – when kicked it moved the score up to 15-10 in the home team’s favour.
Full-back, Jeffery joined in the attacking moves whenever possible, and made a break up the left-hand wing. He fed the ball inside to back-row, Clarke who, as ever, was on-hand to provide support. He finished the move running in unopposed to score the side’s third try.
Abbott kicked well, putting the ball behind the Cheltenham back-line, giving the chasing backs Mattick, Taylor and T. Rideout opportunities to put the defenders under pressure, forcing errors.
The visitors now had a good period of pressure, making Norton’s defence work hard, and the game became very intense. With the game becoming fractious, the referee decided to yellow card a player from both sides to keep control. As Norton’s number eight, Denning, left the pitch with Cheltenham’s number six, there was no animosity between the pair.
While both sides were down to fourteen players, Schuster claimed his second try, and with the conversion added, Norton now had a seventeen-point lead.
Williams joined the field, taking the middle position in the front row between props Jenner and Rose, and immediately took two balls against the head. In the final quarter of the game, Williams also carried the ball well, as did Herrin and J. Rideout.
Although scoring four tries, the team’s great defence held up under pressure near their line, keeping the second half score sheet clean, pleasing the home team’s coach.