Powergen Midlands 2 East

Kettering 47 Banbury Bulls 14
(see match day pix)

BLUES BLITZ THE BULLS

Kettering stormed to victory with a 7 try blitz of lowly Banbury Bulls, with a performance that was, at times irresistible, and others very ordinary.

The game began in perfect sunlit conditions, and Kettering completely dominated the early exchanges and it was no surprise when captain Ryan James burst over for the opening score after 7 minutes, converted by Tim Jones. The lead was short lived, however, as on their first venture into the Kettering half, a mix up in defence gave the Banbury backs the space they needed and full back Steve Kay crossed under the posts for the try, which was duly converted by fly half, Pete Fleming.

Kettering continued to dominate and James scored his second on the half hour, picking up from a 5-metre scrum and bulldozing his way over. Jones again added the extra points. Then as half-time approached Tom Bridgeman delayed his pass long enough for Nathan Satala to pick the right hole, and the winger burst through the Banbury mid-field on halfway and rounded the full back for a fine try, with Jones again converting, to give the home side a comfortable 21-7 lead at the break.

The 2nd half started in the same vein, with Kettering dominating proceedings and after a string of phases James was stopped short and off-loaded to Rory Keir, for the wing forward to score his first try of the game. Jones kept up his 100% record with the conversion.

Banbury began to fight back and Fleming made a fine break to close the gap with a try, which he converted himself, to make the score 28-14, with 20 minutes to go. This shocked the home side into action and some great interplay between Bridgeman and Chris Davis resulted in the latter scoring wide out on the left. The conversion, this time, proved too much for Jones, whose kick drifted wide.

Bridgeman was again instrumental in the next score, as he once again delayed his pass to put Paul Gibson through a hole, and the centre finished the move off by crashing under the posts, to make Jones’ conversion much simpler this time.

As the game drew to a close, Keir was on hand to score his second try, as Kettering once again stretched the tiring Banbury defence, although they were somewhat fortunate that the referee missed a blatant forward pass leading up to the score. Jones finished off a good days work with the boot, by converting the score, to give him a 6 out of 7 total.

Although this was another high scoring win for the Blues, they will know that next weeks fixture, away at Matlock, will be a much tougher encounter, and they will have to be prepared to dig a bit deeper than they appeared to do at times this week.

RAJ Man of the Match: NATHAN SATALA

Other Results

PETERBOROUGH 2ND XV 20 -  KETTERING 2ND XV 12

Kettering came away from this tough Wells Bombardier Merit Table game with a great deal of credit, as they battled to very end of a closely fought contest, which was decided in the last few minutes, when the Blues 2nd string were down to 14 players after losing Ian Shivers to a nasty shoulder injury. The decisive score coming from a crossfield kick to the wing where Shivers would have been, had he not had to leave the field, and Kettering having no more replacements.

MENS OWN 2ND XV 0 -  KETTERING 3RD XV 43

Having lost to the same opponents in a friendly, at home the previous week, the Kettering 3rd team could be forgiven for travelling to Northampton with some trepidation, for this Wells Bombardier Merit Table game. However, they went determined to reverse the result, and were buoyed by the fact that their opponents had 6 1st teamers playing the week before, and knowing that they could, surely, never dominate a game so much and lose, again?!

This proved to be the case, as a Jack Hawkes brace, and single tries from Terry Grannon, Richard Jell, Andrew Jackson, Adrian Butler, Andrew Wright and Greville Henshaw, with Jackson converting 3 of the scores, gave the Blues a tremendous win.

KETTERING 4TH XV 0 -  NORTHAMPTON HEATHENS 73

Kettering fought bravely, but were no match for the Heathens as the Northampton side dominated all areas of the game and ran out easy winners.

KETTERING 5TH XV 30 -  TOWCESTER 4TH XV 15

Back to match reports