Warwickshire & West Midlands Sport

Points secured despite poor display

Bedford Athletic 23 Kenilworth 28
A POOR performance at perishing Putnoe Fields, but valuable National Three Midlands points for Kenilworth, who struggled to overcome winless Bedford Athletic on Saturday.
After a bright start, the visitors lost their way against determined hosts whose try count and score added two bonus points to their meagre haul for the season.
Kenilworth took the lead in a scrappy affair after after nine minutes with a try by Luke Watts who galloped through some weak tackles. Russ Clarke converted and quickly added a successful penalty goal.
The home side began to give as good as they got and with a little more cohesion, could have scored several times.
Nonetheless, it was Kenilworth who posted the next points, a try and conversion by Clarke that followed a smart break by the fly-half, aided once more by some indifferent defending.
Just prior to the interval, an attack, with flanker Sam Viggers in the van, was halted by a hand on the ground and Clarke brought up 20 unanswered points with the penalty goal.
Athletic responded with unconverted tries either side of half time to which they added a penalty which reduced the deficit to seven points.
Clarke slotted over a penalty to provide breathing space and an Ian Phillips charge was held up over the line.
Play immediately switched to the other end and a driving maul ended with a an unconverted try for hooker Neale as the game entered its final quarter.
Little was seen of the Kenilworth backs in attack, although Gareth Renowden nearly managed to get Clements away and Mike Rust always looked dangerous with ball in hand.
Athletic then produced the best move of the match which culminated in an unconverted try for full-back Auld, to bring the scores level.
With ten minutes remaining, the elusive Rust made good ground. This led to a powerful drive by the forwards and release to Watts, who thundered over for what proved to be the winning score of an otherwise eminently forgettable contest.
Kenilworth travel to Newport (Salop) for a rearranged league fixture on Saturday.
Kenilworth Colts defeated Stratford 22-10 thanks to tries from Olly Jones 2, Jake Burroughs and Nick Rowley with Will Owen adding a conversion.

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