Old Bulls 31 vs Vauxhall Vets 19
St Ives Veterans travelled away to Luton this week to take on Vauxhall Motors Veterans with a severely depleted side. Fortunately Vauxhall had a surplus of players as neither their 1sts or 2nds had a game and were able to lend the Old Bulls four players.
St Ives opened the scoring with a break from a scrum on Vauxhalls five metre line by Scrumhalf Chris Bacon who powered over the line dragging a couple of defenders with him.
Again the flying Frenchman Alfie Jesop, at flyhalf controlled the game by keeping the opposition pinned back in their half with the boot, making them run back at the Old Bulls in the searing heat of a hot and sunny afternoon.
Outside Centre Jeremiah Clotte made a welcome return to the team after a nasty outbreak of Golfitis with several jinking runs through the midfield culminating in a crash through two tackles to score out wide.
Unfortunately lack of a kicking tee to start with meant that Jesop was unable to convert the first three tries but his usual excellent kicking form was resumed with the arrival of said Tee.
The temporary injury to ageing war horse Flanker Nigel Pankhurst enabled Vauxhall to take advantage of a man overlap to score from a well worked move in the centres followed by a break by the fullback who passed out to their youthful winger who ran round the defender to score near the posts. They managed to convert the kick.
St Ives started the second half the stronger with their borrowed hooker picking up a loose pass by Vauxhall to run fully 40 yards to score.
Vauxhall came back straight away with another converted try following some good handling by their backs.
This made the score 12-15 to the Old Bulls and it was game on in the baking sun.
Winger Mark Smy then scored the try of the match with a run up the wing after a break down the blindside from a scrum near halfway. Alfie Jesop ran blind supported by Centre Andy Frear who popped the ball to Smy who stepped the cover defence to sprint 35 metres to the line. Jesop converted
Centre Andy Frear scored next from a lineout in the opposition 22 after Clotte ran a dummy line through the defence allowing Frear to crash through a would be tackler to score under the posts. Jesop converted again.
A tired Old Bulls defence allowed the home side one more score after they worked the ball up the pitch by a series of quick ruck balls by a younger, fitter back line, finishing up with a sprint to the corner by the right wing. The conversion eluded their kicker.
The final word went to St Ives with some superb handling by the back line culminating with right winger Dusty Miller running round his considerably younger opposite number to score to the right of the posts. Jesop managed to kick the conversion as the final play of the game.
Man of the match went to Fullback Chris Ford who played his first game in the second row and whinged constantly throughout the game about it but did put a couple of bullocking runs up the centre of the park. Rumour has it that he put in a couple of tackles as well (this has yet to be confirmed by an independent source).
Next weekend sees a mixed St Ives side host a touring side from xxxxxxxxxx on Bank Holiday Monday 3pm KO at the Somersham road ground.