Bishop’s S……………. 31 B Moseley……………29
THIS was a ding-dong battle between two sides, playing only for mid-table pride, but fiercely contested, nevertheless. Stortford butchered the receipt of the opening kick and a period of sustained Moseley pressure brought an opening, unconverted try to Tommy Taylor.
Stortford took the lead five minutes later, when Chris Smith touched down from a Dec Murphy kick, Chris Bolton adding the conversion. A penalty goal by Taylor 20 minutes in put the visitors a point ahead, but the lead changed hands three times more before the break, with tries to Alex Gilham, Tom Miles and Murphy putting the home side into the break two points up.
Scores swung to and fro again after the break, but, having extended their lead to nine points, through a 48 minute try to Austin Pope, converted by Mike Cooke, Stortford were never behind again. With Moseley’s star man, Ollie Allsopp going over by the posts two minutes later to bring the gap back to two, though, it was still a nail-biting affair, with offsetting tries to Will Rogers and Ben Pogson, both from 5m lineout drives winding up the scoring.
The final minutes were intense, after Gilham had been red-carded for a high tackle with 15 minutes to go.
TEAMS
BISHOP’S STORTFORD: Murphy, Smith C, Gilham, Pope, Stannard, Hayes, Bolton; Brownhill, Rayment, Peck, Charter, Kiff, Langworthy, Merrett, Rogers.
Replacements: Hill, Smith T, Bell, Ferguson, Cooke.
MOSELEY: Painter, Brough, Adderley-Jones, Allsopp, Smith, Taylor, Miles; Priest, Roach, McNulty, Barnes, Butler, Safe, Dawes, Peters. Replacements: Pogson, Maka, Allen, Jolly, Nevitt.
REFEREE: Matt Sharpe ATTENDANCE: 503
Star player Seb Brownhill -B Stortford
The best betting sites
