St Ives vs. Kibworth
St Ives travelled to Kibworth this past Saturday for their first outing in the East Midlands/South Leicestershire 1 League season. St Ives were hopeful to turn around after a poor performance last week and record their first win of the 05/06 season, unfortunately Kibworth were reading from a different script.
The game started at pace with St Ives attacking Kibworth straight from the whistle. A number of good drives brought St Ives closer and closer to the Kibworth 22 yard line and were eventually awarded a penalty just to the right of the posts. Jack Blackley calmly stepped up and slotted his kick right through the middle to open the scoring. Kibworth responded almost immediately, a knock on from the restart gifted Kibworth possession just inside the St Ives half. From the resulting scrum the ball was shipped to the backs where the Kibworth fly half cleverly placed a chip right in the gap behind the defence. The ensuing chase between John Paxton at full back and the Kibworth winger was unfortunately lost by John and the Kibworth winger dived on the ball to make the score 5-3.
After an exciting first 10 minutes the game began to settle down, and the heavier Kibworth pack began to exert pressure on the St Ives forwards. Despite the heavier pressure up front, the majority of play was contained in and around the half way zone, with the St Ives defence equal to the Kibworth attack. St Ives were next to score with a brilliant piece of play from John Paxton. Kibworth tried to clear their lines but the kick only managed to reach Paxton who created a gap from nothing and raced through the chasing players to score his first try of the season, the conversion was missed.
The game then became scrappy, with both teams beginning to infringe and punches being exchanged at most breakdowns. The referee obviously became tired of this and was left with no option but to start using his cards, awarding a yellow card to scrum half Lee Jackson and the Kibworth no.8. Kibworth were awarded the penalty and kicked to touch, and scored from the line-out. A simple catch and pop to the hooker found St Ives napping, the try was again unconverted bringing the scores to 10-8.
St Ives conceded more points again before the break. 6 points (2 penalties) came from the boot of the Kibworth fly half and a further try created by the Kibworth pack sucking the defence over to one side of the field before spinning the ball wide, creating the overlap and scoring in the corner. This brought the half time score to 21-8, the score could have been less as Jack Blackley and Nick Crane both charged down kicks and were clear through to score, but the referee deemed the charge downs to be knock ons on both occasions.
The second half provided a better display from St Ives. The forwards were still being dominated in the scrum, but were beginning to perform better around the park. The pressure was beginning to tell and it was only thanks to the boot of the Kibworth no.10 that St Ives were denied. His kicking from hand was impressive and clearances regularly found touch. On one of the occasions he missed touch found the ball in the hands of John Paxton, unfortunately this time the Kibworth chase was more organised and John was caught in no mans land and conceded a penalty. Kibworth capitalising on this took a quick tap, with the St Ives back line all out of position it did not take long for the overlap to emerge and Kibworth scored in the corner. The conversion was again missed; score 26-8.
Once again the game became a scrappy affair with St Ives unable to make any real headway into the Kibworth half, and Kibworth found it hard to penetrate the St Ives defence. Kibworth again had a player sin binned for stamping but managed to repel the St Ives attack. It took a brilliant chip and chase from fly half Mike Sykes to break the deadlock, deciding to go over the top instead of through the defence and collecting his own kick, he had the strength to make the line. Jack Blackley missed the conversion bringing the final score to 26-13.
St Ives 2XV faced Sharnbrook in the East Midlands merit league and lost 20-5, James Yeomans scoring for St Ives.
St Ives host Wellingborough OGs next week and hope to pick up their first win of the season, kick off is 3pm and Spectators are always welcome!