Charlton Park RFC VS Bromley RFC

SOLID AND SOMETIMES SPARKLING PERFORMANCE BY BROMLEY AT CHARLTON PARK

Bromley travelled the short distance to Kidbrooke on Saturday to take on Charlton Park who had won away from home the previous week. The team showed a few changes with Milne and Haisell coming into the pack, Rice restored into the midfield and another reshuffle on the bench. Bromley did not see much of the ball for the first few minutes of the game as it quickly became apparent that the home side’s strength lay in their pack who were extremely solid scrummagers, liked a maul and were proficient at the pick and go. The away team could not get their hands on the ball and slowly but surely conceded territory and it was no real surprise when Park went into the lead 3-0 from a penalty awarded for offside after five minutes. Bromley got through these difficult few minutes and eventually full back George Hawkins got hold of a clearing kick, made ground and slotted a kick of his own into space. This caused chaos and eventually, Miles emerged went on a little trundle and presented the ball which went to fly half Griffiths who flung out a long pass to his brother Alex on the wing who made ground and got the ball back to his brother Johnny who was heavily tackled. This was deemed to be high and the quick thinking Alex tapped and was over the line in a flash. His brother, not to be outdone, then smacked over an excellent conversion.

This really sparked Bromley into life and for the rest of the half, they ran Charlton Park ragged with an exhilarating brand of fifteen man attacking rugby. On twelve minutes they were nearly in again as Powell exploded up the left touchline and was only denied from scoring by a terrific covering tackle. However, Bromley turned over the subsequent line out and clever play released Rice in space and he showed a rare turn of pace to make the line for the try and Bromley were 3-14 ahead. Three minutes later they were in again after a controlled kick through by Alex Griffiths was picked up by second row Pullen who used his strength to crash over for another converted try. Shortly afterwards Powell made another break up the right hand side of the pitch and released the ball to Pillow in space and he does what he does making try scoring look a thing of beauty. Again converted. Within the space of ten minutes, four tries had been scored to secure the bonus point. Play settled down after that and Bromley had to contend with a few scrums that were educational, to say the least. Three minutes from the break one of the Park players was yellow carded – not sure why. From the penalty Bromley decided to tap and go and after buffeting the home side’s defences with three or four charges Miles danced his way over and Griffiths again obliged with the conversion leaving the half time score at 3-35.

Things looked pretty ominous for the home side but credit to them as for the first twenty minutes of the second half they took the game to Bromley and with the help of multiple penalties being awarded to them they kept the black and ambers penned in their own half denying them territory and possession. They were further assisted when Haisell was yellow carded on fifty minutes for preventing a quick penalty from being taken and then Miles a few minutes later followed him for some technical offence in a scrum. So for the third time in the last few weeks, they were down to thirteen men. Consequently, they had to go into full defensive mode and withstood several punishing forward surges by the home forwards but they kept getting pinged and eventually Park used this to their advantage and scored and with the scud missile conversion it was 10-35. Sixty one minutes played. From the resultant kick off Bromley threw off the shackles and constructed a quite beautiful piece of flowing rugby to score a peach of a try. They got their hands on the ball in centre field to release the backs who all came onto to the ball at pace to completely outflank and bambozzle the home side. The final pass was right on the money to release Richardson, I think, who tore off down the right wing to score a terrific try. Alex Griffiths took the conversion from the touchline. It was beauty but just clipped the top of the post and stayed out. 10-40.

Bromley were now in full attack mode again with several forwards charging through defensive lines with Milne and Pullen prominent. This put them in the opposition half and on sixty four minutes the forwards took the ball on again which culminated in a couple of intricate passes ending up with Tommy Scott cutting a great line to surge over for another super try. Five minutes later play was inside the Bromley half when one of the Park forwards tore through a gap and charged towards the try line. He had breached the cover and only Hawkins was left to deal with him. George stood his ground and waited for him to move left or right. He did neither and ran straight into him. The referee immediately blew his whistle and deemed it to be a high tackle and therefore a yellow card and a penalty try to boot. Bromley, shall we say not agreeing with this interpretation, accepted it and moved on. This spurred Bromley into life again and they were soon knocking on the door. Powell was released down the right wing and with cover converging he knocked a teasing kick deep into the opposition twenty two causing carnage. Park got their hands on the ball and tried desperately to clear from behind their try line but Bromley scragged their number ten resulting in a five metre scum to them. For probably the first time in the game they got a nudge on and lo and behold they were penalised again. Downhearted – not a bit of it. In the last few minutes, it was finally the turn of the home side to attract the attention of the referee who awarded Bromley two penalties and awarded Charlton Park one yellow card making five in total in a keenly contested game played in the best of spirits.

Bromley took advantage of this to get close to the posts and after several goes at getting over the whitewash decided finally to move the ball left where there was a massive overlap and Pullen strolled over for his second try which was duly converted to leave the full time score at 17-52 to Bromley. There were many pleasing aspects to this Bromley performance and for twenty minutes or so in the first half they showed what they have been working towards all season. My own player of the match is George Rice who did all the basics very very well and deserved his try. On the other side of the coin too many penalties and yellow cards but they rose above that and dealt with it but it probably needs addressing. Charlton Park were excellent hosts on the day having a well attended Xmas lunch and showing a never say die attitude on the pitch. We wish them well for the remainder of the season.

Back at HQ in Barnet Wood Road, the twos and threes were treading the boards. The seconds hosted Dartfordians in an excellent contest which could have gone either way, Bromley were 17-5 ahead at the break but well into the second half they found themselves 17-21 down and a player yellow carded, sound familiar, but they upped their game and scored twelve points to take the spoils 29-21. The thirds had the dubious pleasure of hosting Elthamian Seconds who have been obliterating everyone they have played and although they battled bravely they could not match their opponents when they were at their best and went down 7-42. The official players of the match were Harrison Pullen in the first team, Tom Rowe in the seconds and Callum Lowe in the thirds.  

In the final game before the festive season on Saturday we have for your delectation, at first team level, the local derby against Park House who rattled up over sixty points in their last outing. The seconds are away at Colfeians and the threes are at home to Alleynians. All games kick off at two o’clock. Chuck in a fully booked President’s Lunch and it should be a cracking day.