Bingham hit back after slow start to beat Melton 3rds / Vets

Bingham recover from a misfiring 1st half to overcome a big and streetwise Melton team

Looking to bounce back after last weeks loss, Bingham travelled to Melton with a number of changes including season starts for Tom Packer & Anthony Thomas. An injury to Mike Fuller in the warm-up and losing Tom Spibey early on meant a few positional changes & having to pull Tom Packer out of the back row.

Ominous signs at the 1st scrum as the Big Melton Pack drove Bingham off the ball and scored under the posts.

Bingham showed some enterprise with Jamie Graham almost getting through some last-ditch defence but gained a penalty with Matt Cumming adding the points

Melton bounced straight back collecting ball from the back of line out and broke through to stretch the lead 12 - 3

Bingham just did not seem on their game as they struggled to get any continuity going relying on individual sparks to gain ground and had to dig in and scramble in defence as Melton broke a number of 1st up tackles. With 30 mins gone, Tom Packer showed good feet to evade 2 or 3 tackles eventually offloading to his brother Ben in support who juggled with the ball and despite claims for a knock on, he managed to hold on and get the touchdown. Matt Cumming added the conversion.

The score came just at the right time as Bingham then managed to put some phases together, get the ball out quickly to the backs to allow Jamie Graham to show a clean pair of heels before putting Oscar Ciaurro in. Matt Cumming again added the conversion.

As the half was coming to close, Tom Packer took a quick tap and Richard Walters seized the initiative, carried the ball and made great yardage putting Melton on the back foot. After driving forward Ben Jones wriggled his way close to the line before getting support from Lee Fretwell to score. Halftime came with Bingham stretching the lead to 12 - 22

Playing downhill, Matt Cumming began gaining good field position with some excellent kicks but as one kick brought Bingham into the Melton 22, a series of poor tackles excellent offloading and support play allowed Melton to go almost the length of the pitch to bring it to a 3 point game, 19 - 22

A period in the 2nd half where it got a bit tasty before Matt Cumming settled things down a bit with a penalty

The backs again got the ball wide with Jamie Graham benefitting from terrific support play to score. With the conversion, a bit of breathing room 19 - 32

The game was then made safe as Oscar Ciaurro collected loose ball on halfway and showed some great speed to outsprint the defence 19 - 37

A final lapse of concentration though allowed Melton to collect the restart make ground and held up just short of the line before a final drive to score and convert on the final whistle 26 - 37

Not our best performance at times but Bingham stuck at it and fronted up to a big, tough, clever team for the full 80 mins and came out on top. Massively proud of everyone's efforts.