Buckingham just fall short

Nearly

On a perfect day for rugby, both teams, who would normally be contenders in the league for the top two or three spots, failed to produce the normal skill levels expected of them.
From the kick off Marlow kicked long into the Buckingham half but the resulting ruck led to a penalty for the defence, and a fine kick by Ed Kinman relieved the pressure. Indeed Kinman delivered excellent kicking standards all game. Marlow continued to pressure Bucks and their scrum and line out put increasing pressure on the away defence but they demonstrated typical dogged resilience.
After 10 minutes, from a chip ahead, Marlow were able to regather the ball and were awarded a penalty directly in front of the posts.The kick was turned down and a kick to the corner resulted in a well defended line out. However a penalty resulted and a yellow card for Wiggy Gurney which was shortly exacerbated by a second yellow card leaving Buckingham with only 13 players on the field.
The numerical advantage was exploited by Marlow who scored the opening try of the game.
On 35 minutes yet another clever kick took Bucks into the opposition 22. The linnet malfunctioned but a penalty was slotted by Kinman from 40 metres. This was answered by Marlow just before half time when they were awarded a kickable penalty to leave the half time score at 8-3 to the home side.
The second half continued with strong scrummaging and line outs from Marlow but strong Bucks defence was again to the fore together with some good flowing attacking backs moves. On 50 minutes Bucks class told, Nobby Clarke took the ball out of defence and after a series of rucks Matt Payne finished off a forward rumble to score a fine team try which was improved by the dependable Kinman. The lead was short lived as Marlow scored a penalty. The game was now very evenly contested ebbing and flowing with Bucks enjoying good periods of territory and possession. A flowing three quarters move resulted in a converted Marlow try to take the score to 18-10 but the Bucks never say die attitude brought them a much deserved score, Nick Sumner dotting down after a period of scrappy play.

Much credit to the perseverance and resilience of the defence on another day the result could have gone Buckinghams way.

Match report by A. Scott