Bishop’s Stortford 10 Blackheath 10  

 

It rained and the wind blew. You may have noticed.

 

If you made the journey to Hertfordshire and braved the elements, you were rewarded with a game that proved a huge slog, and one where both sides will feel unsatisfied with the end result.

 

Bishop’s Stortford’s overall game management probably had the edge, and when their chances came, they executed well, while Blackheath let theirs slip, literally, and relied on their scrum, which wrecked the opposition eight all afternoon, to drag them back from defeat.

 

In that respect, two early scrums set the tone, but in the five previous meetings between the sides, in which Stortford hold the balance of three wins, Blackheath have consistently floundered in the face of a resilient and dogged defence. 

 

Kicks, which were held up in the strong wind, against the visitors in the first period, were met competently by the Stortford back three, and when a gust kept a penalty infield, full-back Nick Hankin slipped through tackles for skipper and outside-centre Sam Winter to cross out wide.

 

Mark Cooke found a good strike from 35-metres for three points after Stortford went off-side, but almost straight from the re-start, the Club fly-half’s kick from defence rebounded off the head of opposition hooker Harrison King, inside-centre George Keen kicking on to ground the ball for a 10-3 lead to the hosts.

 

Either side of the interval Blackheath produced decent attacking opportunities only for ball to be knocked on in midfield, and Cooke was less successful with a second penalty, despite the wind now being in the Club’s favour.

 

However, as they kept up the pressure, Tom Williams, Harry Seward and Danny Herriott, with the excellent Neale Patrick and Josh Peters applying the power from the second-row, tore up the Stortford scrum to win the penalty try that brought parity.

 

With Stortford reduced temporarily to 13-men, Blackheath felt the more likely to find the winning score, and it looked to have come when Ben Ransom seemed to have touched down Cooke’s chip over the defence.  But referee Ross Mabon was closer than most and adjudged a Stortford body had grounded first and the scores remained level.

 

National League One takes a break next weekend, but Blackheath are in action again on Saturday 29th February when Cambridge are the visitors to Well Hall.  Kick off is at 3 pm.

 

Bishop’s Stortford

 

Tries:   Winter, Keen

 

Blackheath

 

Tries:   Penalty try

Pens:   Cooke