St.Ives Roosters travelled to Bedford Tigers on Saturday and to say Wentworth Drive hadn't been a happy hunting ground for Roosters in recent years would be an understatement.

St.Ives Roosters travelled to Bedford Tigers on Saturday and to say Wentworth Drive hadn't been a happy hunting ground for Roosters in recent years would be an understatement. The skipper, Josh Meadows, assembled a strong squad to set off down the A1 and was hoping they would show the same grit and determination from the two previous fixtures.

After a fairly even opening 10 minutes, It was Bedford who crossed the whitewash first. However Roosters quickly responded with their own unconverted score when Barnie West crashed over after some fine running rugby was finished with abit of individual brilliance from the winger. 4-4.

Then Roosters responded brilliantly again after conceding when Paul Ashbridge burst through Bedfords defence and sprinted away from the fullback to touch down under the posts. Converted, 8-10.

And the game continued in the same vain. End to end with some flowing rugby giving both sets of spectators something to cheer. Bedford we're conceding penalty upon penalty in the first half for 'holding down' and Roosters made them pay from a penalty 10 meters out. Michael Wright and Tommy Newman smashed their way through the opposition forwards before Mickey Blackley then made a charge to line to be held up just short, up stepped Dave Sykes to take over in his favourite field position and drove to the line from close in to score. Converted by Ashbridge. 8-16.

Roosters could smell blood and had Bedford pegged back in there own 22 before a nasty head injury stopped play. Bedford reorganised themselves and ended the half with a converted try to make the half time score 14-16.

After the half time restart Bedford were allowed to run the length of the field only for Barnie West to make a superb try saving tackle. From the resulting play Chris Sykes was adjudged to make a tackle from an offside position and a penalty try was awarded to Bedford and converted. Sykes was sent to the bin for his efforts. 20-16

But where the Roosters could have crumbled they dug in and worked for eachother. The 12 men were on the front foot and George Stevens made the pressure tell when he threw an outrageous dummy 2 meters out and created a huge gap for himself to crash over. Unconverted. 20-20.

Despite giving away consecutive penalties the Roosters defence was solid. The tireless Josh Meadows and Ashbridge were making hit after hit and it was the later who continued the Roosters charge when he broke threw some tired Bedford tackles to score under the posts once more. Converted 20-26.

From the restart Tom Conder took the ball on the full and began his charge. 50 meters later and after leaving countless Bedford players in his wake, he was stopped. Quick play sent Chris Sykes through a gap and he was tackled 5m short. Tom Johnsons dummy run gave West space out wide who beat his man and dived over in the corner to give Roosters a 10 point lead with 15 minutes to play.

The Roosters had victory in their sights and it seemed to go to their heads when a few wayward passes saw the ball turned over on their own try line and conceded when the Bedford winger touched down in the corner. 24-30.

Roosters had given everything, tackles became tired and Bedford made them pay when they scored a converted try at the death. Final score, 30-30.

And at the final whistle the drama continued...Bedford were desperate and pleaded with the referee to check the rules and to award them 2 extra points for the penalty try. The referee confirmed that he'd made the right decision and no amount of Tigers tantrums was going to change that.

Skipper, Josh Meadows, was once again delighted with his sides efforts, and although disappointed to concede in the last minute, was full of praise. 'Every week I ask for more effort and the lads continue to blow my expectation out the water. I'm excited to see what this group of lads can achieve this season'