Bristol B 29-15 Dorset B

At The Three Crowns, 11^th October 2009

Match Report – I set the bar high asking for 30 points in my last report and we were close to the mark hitting a 29-15 victory to make us odds on to win our third straight title. There was an air of expectancy in the room with us thinking we were going to win the game easy. I think in principle that’s fine, but I do think it made us quieter on the day and Id like to see the noise return in the next game against Wiltshire. A solid first set display took us into a 7-4 lead. This was followed up with a crushing 8-3 win in the second set to give Bristol a commanding 15-7 lead at the half way mark. I felt the time was right to give everyone a try for the final two sets and brought in the 5 reserves for 2 players who got none from two and the three players who had one from two. I want to point out that this was a one off as I felt the conditions allowed me to do this. Fortunately it proved to be the right decision as we took the third and fourth sets 7-4 to wrap up the 29-15 win. Our task is now 90% complete and I certainly don’t want us to trip up falling at the last hurdle. We need to all contribute as a team to finish the job.

Man of the Match – Some really strong team play against Dorset with a three out of four for Mark Wood and three four out of four for Shane Thompson (yet again!), Mick Dagostino and myself. There were also two out of two for three reserves, Harjeet Singh, Mark Court and Rob Winstone. Ive decided to jointly give the man of the match to both Mark and Rob for their faultless contributions under immense pressure. Well done lads.

Next Match – Wiltshire up at home for our last fixture of the season. Weve still got a job to do and its going to take us all at 100% to achieve it. The magic win is 37-7 to guarantee first place, which would mean it wouldn’t even matter how Devon or Cornwall did against each other. Now in reality we may not need such a big win, but Im not a captain who relies on other teams and when I look at that result and the opponents, I have to say I think a 37-7 win is achievable. So lets go for it! Heads on as usual and lets go for a really big win to send us to Yarmouth!

2009 Table				2009 Rankings
P	Team	Pl	Pts	P	Name	Pl	W	L	Pts
1	Bristol B	9	283	1	Avy Singh	28	19	9	45
2	Devon B	9	276	2	Mark Wood	36	19	17	45
3	Cornwall B	9	267	3	Shane Thompson	31	22	9	44
4	Somerset B	9	213	4	Lee Rossiter	32	21	11	42
5	Dorset B	9	164	5	Dave Barrett	31	19	12	41
6	Wiltshire B	9	114	6	Mark Stevens	32	19	13	38