Kesteven 1st XV vs Matlock 1st XV

Kesteven had a welcome break from league action with Matlock as the visitors. Kesteven were looking to reach the final for a second successive year.

The early exchanges were pretty even with the home team perhaps edging the possession. The Matlock defence was resolute and shut down the home attack pretty effectively. After 15 minutes Matlock made an initial beak and got into the Kesteven 22 for the first time. The won a scrum close to the home line and turned the scrum to free up the ball for their flanker to go over for the opening score. The fly half judged the tricky wind to perfection to add the conversion. They added to their tally a couple of minutes later with their second try – a straightforward effort which saw them run in behind after swift hands released their left wing who scored at the posts. The simple conversion took the score to 14 – 0. The home team were unlucky to lose Whittaker and wood to injury early in the half. Brad Jepson and Ed Cole came on with the latter turning back the years to occupy the wing position his Dad Robert had held in the past!

These two scores and the injury setbacks spurred Kesteven on and they continued to attack. The Matlock side used illegal methods to stop them and they had two men sent to sin bin in quick succession for persistent off side. This should have settled Kesteven but Matlock scored an amazing try. Kesteven had an attacking scrum on the Matlock line but the visitors stole the ball and quickly moved it out to the left wing who ran the length of the field to score. This was a killer blow taking the score to 21 – 0. K’s did make the extra men count and forced another attacking position. This time they got their reward as Adam Draper dived in for the try. The conversion failed but then again Matlock were able to defy the odds by adding a fourth try just as half time came. 5 – 26 did not accurately reflect the half but it did show that the visitors were clinical in their finishing

At the break Odams came on for Vincent with Osborne dropping back to the second row. Kesteven now had the benefit of the wind and parker was able to put in some useful kicks in. Matlock though were able to repel all advances which came from some fine breaks by Goodrich and Jepson. In the pack Sayle was having a fine game dominating the line out but in the end it was Matlock who added to the score sheet. With some 20 minutes left they were able to get the ball out on the left wing again and he was able to round the defence to run clear to score at the posts before their stand-off finished off the scoring with a fine individual try by chipping over the on rushing defence and collecting the ball to crash over. He converted both to bring up the final score of 40 points to 5. Despite the score line this was not a bad performance against a team sitting at the top of Midlands League 2. Youngsters like Cole Cartwright and Aspinall would benefit from the experience of playing against higher opposition. The space that they would expect at the usual level just wasn’t there against the stronger opposition. Nest week it is back to league action with the trip to Grimsby.

Team was O Wood; W Aspinall, A Cartwright, J Goodrich, A Whittaker; M Parker, A Draper, A Osborne, R Sheardown, G Purvis, W Pert L Vincent, T Webster. J Payne, M Sayle Replacements B Jepson, S Odams, E Cole,