Banbury 27 Bournville 28
Bournville clinched the Regional One Midlands title after a scrappy bonus point win was followed by news that Newport, their closest challengers, had gone down 34-31 at home to Bridgnorth.
Newport’s visit to Avery Fields on March 28 had long been billed as the title decider so news of a second successive home defeat for the Shropshire club came as something of a surprise.
It took time for confirmation of Newport’s defeat to come through though. The result was the last to appear on the RFU website two hours after the final whistle at Banbury but by then Newport had posted the result on their Facebook page.
The celebrations then started for Bournville who were made to work hard or victory at Bodicote Park by a Banbury side who were always dangerous on the counter-attack.
Bourns will not reflect too long on a disjointed performance but the result was everything. They went into the game with an eights points lead over Newport and the try bonus point helped then to ensure they could not be overtaken, securing the title with two rounds of matches to go.
“It was a quite disjointed game and we were a little but disjointed at times,” said Head Coach Alex Grove.
“But we knew that it was going to be a hard game because Banbury’s position in the table was not a reflection of some of their performances since Christmas.
“They kicked behind us and they also moved the ball well so we had to work very hard for the win and the five points.
“But we don’t want to dwell too much on the things that we could have done better.
“The five points and Newport’s defeat against Newport mean that we have won the league and that is what we will be celebrating.”
Jonjo Fanning went over for an early try, when he was driven over from a lineout and Jacob Fewtrell added the conversion, but Banbury proved tenacious and they responded with a try from Max Benson who followed up a grubber through the Bourns defence.
Ollie Nicholl added the conversion and then slotted a penalty to give Banbury the lead before Mauro Miller went over for the first of his two tries and Fewtrell again added the extras.
Banbury were ahead again at the break after Joe Smith hacked ahead and touched down with Nicholl converting to give them a three points advantage.
Miller’s second try, after the forwards had made ground through the middle and Fewtrell’s accurate kicking restored Bourns’ advantage, but not for long.
Quinten Blythe went over for a well-worked try for Banbury which Nicholl converted but Bourns finished strongly with Chris Idehen scoring the all-important fourth try from a turnover with Fewtrell making it four out of four from the tee.
There was time for Nicholl to add a penalty to reduce the lead to a point but Sam Grimhaw almost added a fifth try for Bourns, only to be bundled into touch by the cornerflag late on.
Joe Jenkins was outstanding in defence, covering a lot of ground to tidy up on the frequent occasions when Banbury kicked behind Bourns while Callum Nicholls carried hard in attack.
Having been relegated from the National Leagues 12 months ago Bourns began this season with objective of making a swift return and it was very much mission accomplished after a day of twists and turns.
*Bournville Blues completed a good day for the club by beating Coventry Welsh 57-20 at Avery Fields in Counties Two Midlands West (East).
