K's caught sleeping at Dronfield

With both sides suffering with absentees and long injury lists, a number of 2nd team players and veterans joined the ranks of the two 1st XV teams on a crisp sunny afternoon at Gosforth Fields in Dronfield.

We can only wish that the Ireland v New Zealand game had been on prior to our match at Dronfield - perhaps Kesteven would have drawn inspiration from the amazing Kiwi comeback for their own match at Dronfield.

It was two seasons ago that Dronfield secured promotion to Midlands 2 East (North) and in that season they were only beaten 3 times - Kesteven being responsible for 2 of their defeats. K's were hoping to make it a hat-trick.

Matt Harland kicked off the match for Kesteven against a deceptively steep incline. With the bright setting sun in their eyes, Kesteven were unable to make things work in their favour during the 1st half. Straining eyes, knock-ons and disorganisation all got the better of the visiting side and it wasn't long before Kesteven found themselves fiercely defending their lines within their own 22. Will Bradley left the field after just 7 minutes for treatment and was replaced by Phil Jordan.

Dronfield were awarded a penalty which they duly slotted on the 13th minute and just 6 minutes later Kesteven were caught off-guard following an error and Dronfield ran their first try in. This was successfully converted and less than a minute later, with K's pinned in their 22 following an error once again, Dronfield were awarded another penalty making the score 13-0 after just 25 minutes.

Dronfield capitalised on communication problems within the K's ranks and badly placed kicks for their next 2 tries and only missed one of the subsequent conversions giving a half time score of 25-0.

Kesteven made some changes during the break with Will Bradley returning to the field for Alex Ingram and Daniel Turner coming on for Andrew Price but Kesteven were yet to find their feet even with the downhill advantage and sun on their backs in the second half. Further mistakes and disarray from Kesteven resulted in two further tries from Dronfield early in the 2nd half which left Kesteven trailing 39-0 on the scoreboard.

Eventually the first break did come when Dan Turner was able to pop the ball up in a tackle for the supporting Martin Carew to snatch and make a 40m charge for the Dronfield line. Although the Kesteven 8 was hauled down just feet away from the try line, the advantages of a long reach allowed Carew to secure Kesteven's first try after 52 minutes.

The resulting war cry resonated through the Black Army and their game sprung into life. Kesteven were now pinning Dronfield in their own half of the pitch at the bottom of the hill and Dan Turner and Martin Carew were almost able to replicate the first of Kesteven's try just a few minutes after the restart. Kesteven's next try came when Andrew Peabody was able to set Scott Odams loose and the loosehead prop was able to crash through the Dronfield defence to secure 5 further points

From the restart, through smart work and a seamless link between the forwards and backs, Kesteven were again pressing the Dronfield side back on their 5m line. Dronfield, perhaps shell shocked by their visiting opponents, tried desperately to clear their lines but Richard Midgely was there to scoop the charge down and secure another 5 points with just 5 minutes of the game remaining.

The sole objective of the final 5 minutes became to at least secure the 4 try bonus point and close the deficit as much as possible. Dronfield restarted the game with the resulting kick being secured by the Kesteven forwards. Once again the link between forwards and backs proved sound and Olly Wood was able to set off on a 50m down hill run before popping to Kieran Taylor who finished the length-of-the-pitch jaunt to touch down for Kesteven's fourth try, securing the bonus point at 39-20. Matt Harland was unable to convert any of Kesteven's tries in the rush of playing catch up.

Dronfield hadn't given up just yet and produced some of their own magic to score out wide with the conversion going astray in the final minute of the game. The match finished 46-20 in Dronfield's favour.

Despite starting poorly, Kesteven's attempts to comeback saw some of Kesteven's sleeping capability reawakened. James Goodrich put in a number of barn storming runs sending Dronfield defenders all over the place. Mark "Skinny" Sayle, freshly back from a week of training, put in a number of yard gaining runs and Adam Draper, freshly repaired from his Voldermort encounter, tackled and attacked like a man possessed but Man of the Match went to Martin Carew.

A big thank you to all those that stepped up to the 1st team this week - your help has been invaluable and a massive thank you to all the parents, partners, committee members, coaches et all that travelled to Dronfield to support the team.

Next week Kesteven welcome Stamford to Woodnook. See you on the training paddock at 7pm on Tuesday & Thursday night guys!

Team: Scott Odams, Robert Sheardown, Peter Dolan, Mark Sayle(Jnr), Andrew Price, Andrew Peacock, Richard Midgely, Martin Carew, Adam Draper, Matt Harland, Kieran Taylor, Will Bradley, James Goodrich, Alex Ingram, Olly Wood. Replacements: Phil Jordan, Martyn Parker, Dan Turner

Coaches: Mark Sayle, Malcolm Turner
Statistician: Nikki Turner
Photographers: Louise Clark, Gavin Purvis