Lichfield 12 Bournville 33
It was never going to be perfect but this was another impressive performance from Bournville in testing conditions on the road against a tenacious Lichfield side.
The match had to be switched to the third team pitch at Cooke Fields after the first team one was left unplayable having been used for an Under-12s tournament the previous evening. The second team pitch also had standing water on it and the pitch that the referee was eventually happy with was a morass before kick-off and kick-off had to be delayed while Lichfield officials roped off three sides for spectators.
The pitch was also narrow and sloping but, after encountering similar conditions on recent trips to Newent and Drybrook, Bourns took it in their stride to secure a valuable bonus point win which increased in value when news came through that Newport had gone down 28-27 to Stourbridge at Forton Road. Bournville’s lead over Newport is now eight points and the points difference 118 superior to the Shropshire club.
With four matches left, including a visit by Newport to Avery Fields, Bournville remain in control of their own destiny but success this season has been based on focusing on the next job – Lutterworth at home next Saturday – and working on areas for improvement.
After leaking tries at Newent and against Dudley Kingswinford, the defence has tightened up considerably. Having denied Drybrook a score of any kind last week Bourns went a further 62 minutes before Lichfield scored the first of their two tries.
There were two long passages of play, one in each half, when Lichfield stretched Bournville’s defence but the ferocity of the tackling made sure that they were unable to convert pressure into more points.
In attack Bourns look sharp with Joe Jenkins and Mauro Miller forming a potent combination and the first try, scored by Miller after a break by Jenkins, was arguably the best of the season. It may not have been as spectacular as one of Nathan Decalmer’s long-range specials but for patience and focus through multiple phases it was hard to beat.
Miller repaid the complement by putting Jenkins in for the second try with a clever kick ahead which, with a second excellent conversion from Jacob Fewtrell, gave Bourns a handy 14-0 lead.
Against a side as resilient as Lichfield – Bourns are the only side to beat them and deny them a bonus point – more was needed in the second-half. At least Bourns had the advantage of playing down the slope but they spent the first five minutes of the second period manning the barricades in defence.
Scott Rudge put in a decisive tackle and Sam Grimshaw got a boot to the loose ball before Miller demonstrated his footballing skills by dribbling through the mud to score under the posts with Fewtrell again converting.
The bonus point try came nine minutes later when Mikey Ho finished off another sustained attack but Bourns then got on the wrong side of the referee and lost Jonjo Fanning to the sin bin after cumulative team penalties.
Lichfield were rewarded for their own enterprise with two tries, one on each wing, which gave them a sniff of a losing bonus point until Callum Nicholls capped a rampaging performance by picking up at a five metre scrum and powering over from the final play of the match with Fewtrell drop kicking the conversion.
*Bournville Blues suffered an agonising 34-31 defeat against Southam at Avery Fields in Counties Two Midlands West (East) but picked up two valuable bonus points.
Through the viewfinder
My two best purchases for such events got another outing, a pair of Gore-Tex boots and a pair of waterproof over trousers. A great investment!
Strange weather again – bright then cloudy , warm then cold, but at least the mud was a constant.
Once again for the lucky none Facebook users, here is the link to some photos of the day.
Sully, Bournville’s always friendly (and free) photographer.
