St Ives vs. Kempston
St Ives starts 2007 as they mean to go on, with their first away win in 2 seasons! This weekend saw St Ives travel to Kempston for the first game of 2007 with strong intentions of notching 2 more points on the board. After the first encounter back in November, where St Ives won 41-7, confidence was high that a win was coming.
In truth the game became more of a mud wrestling contest with torrential rain coming down after 10 minutes of play. This was detrimental to St Ives as they were unable to utilise their backs to their full potential, but despite this St Ives managed to come out on top. The opening dry 10 minutes did allow St Ives to run the ball and came close to scoring on 2 occasions, but the opening score came from an interception in the end. Lee "Chicken Wing" Jackson pouncing on a loose pass to streak away under the posts for the opening score, Adam Clark was successful with the conversion.
St Ives were then requested to perform defensive duties in a see saw encounter that saw both sides enjoying possession throughout the remainder of the second half, some strong scrummaging from the pack ensured clean possession and retention of ball, with some excellent play up front from Pete Hammond, Gez Gilburt and Josh Dear containing a strong Kempston front line. Some good possession from Kempston eventually paid off though, a series of drives sucked up the St Ives defence and allowed the home side to score close to the posts. This took the half time score to 7-5.
The second half started with the same downpour that marred most of the first half, but St Ives were reluctant to let it dampen their game plan. Some quick recycled ball from the forwards found John Paxton the space to run, a series of dummy drop offs created the gap for him to cut through and pop the ball up to debutant Barney Harrison who demonstrated a circus act of juggling and eventually claimed the ball and crashed over for the score. Adam missed the conversion.
Again the see saw battle ensued, both teams struggling to retain a period of possession before the poor conditions forced the mistake. Kempston were first to capitalise on this and created the space out wide to steam up the field. Some excellent defending and 2 covering tackles in a row from Marc Sands were unfortunately not enough to prevent the try from coming, thankfully the conversion attempt was missed. Score 12-10.
What followed was 10 minutes of heart in mouth defence form St Ives. The home side piled everything in to try and snatch the lead but the defence held firm, some excellent tackling from James Yeomans and John Paxton ensured that the Kempston attack was knocked back every time. St Ives then gained possession on the half way line through Mike Sykes, Mike held up the ball and created the gap for Ollie Moorhouse to streak through. Steaming for the line it was obvious that the opposition's full back was going to cause problems so Ollie unselfishly offloaded to Lee Jackson allowing him to score his second of the game again under the posts. Adam's conversion attempt was good.
With 3 minutes to play St Ives felt they were home and dry but Kempston had other plans, a penalty just inside the St Ives half allowed them to gain territory and from the following play a missed tackle in midfield allowed them to score under the posts and get the conversion - so with a minute left to play St Ives were again holding on for dear life for the victory. They were successful and the final whistle brought cheers of relief to the St Ives team.
Speaking after the game Ross Thompson was ecstatic with the result - to win away at last is a great relief. We knew that this would not be as easy as the home leg and the weather certainly didn't help! But the lads have done well and it boosts our confidence ahead of next week's home game against Stoneygate.
Final Score: Kempston 17 - St Ives 19.
The seconds notched up their first win of 2007 in a home game against Oundle. Tries from Chris Bacon, James Cannon and Jim Lewsam were enough to see St Ives run out winners - final score: St Ives 17 - Oundle 14