Deal & Betteshanger VS Bromley RFC

AWAY DAY JOY FOR BROMLEY

With the Christmas and New Year festivities out of the way, it was back to business last weekend. Despite the weather the first and third team games were declared on but the home fixture for the second team was called off due to the pitches being frozen solid at Barnet Wood Road. The firsts were away at Deal and the thirds made the short journey to Dartfordians. All three selected teams looked strong with the only change to the ones being in the centres with Powell and Laws returning. The thirds had a younger look about them but still had some experienced heads in the starting fifteen including Steve Griffiths, Rob Cheeseman and Callum Houghton. Their bench also had a few, shall we say vets, on the sidelines namely Harry Marshall, Chris Kember and Gary ‘Peaky Blinder’ Carney plus our own dedicated freedom pass owner his highness Boyne Annesley.

The first team game was the only one on in Kent Counties One as far as I can work out and the pitch at Deal, although boggy, was very playable. Bromley encountered a big and very physical home side and they needed all their grit, doggedness and know how to get through a serious examination of their credentials. The first fifteen minutes set the tone with both teams going hammer and tongs with only a penalty for the home side kicked by fly half Ollie Best separating the sides. Howeve,r on eighteen minutes Bromley eased ahead with a converted try. The conversion was by Alex Griffiths who took over goal kicking duties from his brother Johnny who had gone off injured. This caused a reshuffle with George Scott going to fly half and Alex into scrum half. Ten minutes later the away side eased further ahead with another converted try taking the score to 3-14. They were looking to get to half time with this lead intact but the home side had other ideas and hooker Curd crashed over just before the break and with Best converting the score at the end of the first half was 10-14 and not much really between the two teams.

Bromley made a confident start to the second period and were soon into their stride leading to another converted try on forty four minutes. Try as they might they could not extend this lead and Deal fought back with a good converted try by their back row Morgan 17-21. Going into the final quarter the game was in the balance but on sixty six minutes the away side made the crucial breakthrough with another converted try to give them the cushion of an eleven point lead and the bonus point. In the last ten minutes or so Bromley were sound defensively and blunted their bigger opponents leaving the final score at 17-28. This was a very satisfactory result at a difficult venue. Bromley try scorers were David Banfield, Harrison Pullen, Harry Milne and James Powell. The man of the match was Aydan Godden.

Meanwhile, the thirds were engaged in a battle in deepest Bexley. The first half was hard fought but Bromley eked out a 0-12 lead and were looking to build on that going into the second half but playing any Darts side away is never easy and not unexpectedly they fought back and twelve minutes in they were ahead 14-12. The next ten minutes or so were nip and tuck but in the last fifteen Bromley put the pedal down and scored three tries to record a sound victory 14-31. Try scorers were Alex Donaldx2, Callum Houghton, Ethan Evans and James Bassett Cross. Conversions by Dan O’Rourke and Gary Carney(2). Man of the match was Elliot Foley.

On Saturday the Firsts are at home to Dover, the Seconds are playing Kings College Hospital and the Thirds have a friendly against Westcombe Park.