Bognor’s squad assembled at Hampshire Avenue on a wet and blustery morning for the long trip to play Ellingham and Ringwood RFC

Fresh from a fantastic display against New Milton, Bognor’s squad assembled at Hampshire Avenue on a wet and blustery morning for the long trip to play Ellingham and Ringwood RFC, a team they had beaten comfortably at home earlier in the season.
Despite a number of players being unavailable for various reasons, the squad, including a couple of debutants in Woody and Booker and the late inclusion of Ethan Teasdale who looked like an extra from the Walking Dead as he was dragged from his sick bed, looked strong and eager to bring home the five points needed to continue our push for promotion.
Despite number nine Jack Hornibrook’s attempts to send everyone to Brighton rather than the New Forest (Its BH not BN Jack!!!) the squad eventually arrived at a wet, windy, rainy and muddy Ellingham & Ringwood. Tough forwards Bidwell, Burgess and Stevens were eventually persuaded to leave the comfort of Coach Baker’s car and the squad had a very positive and determined warm up. Coach Flynn again emphasised the need for discipline (more of that later) and heads up rugby and for the players to play to the conditions.
A moving minute’s applause was held for the young Evesham player who tragically passed away last weekend and the game started brightly with Bognor’s big ball carriers Foote and Webb making inroads into and through the E&R defence. Eventually after concerted pressure the ball found it way to marauding back rower Ubbsdell on the 22, who stormed through the home defence to score an excellent try. Sadly Fly Half Lysaght couldn’t convert, but at this stage it looked like a victory would be a formality. (Reporters Note: I only saw a bit of the try as I was trying and failing to find a certain players heart tablets – no pressure there then!!!).
Sadly a combination of a lack of discipline, some unusually weak tackling and a referee who seemed intent on handing out more cards than my postman at Xmas, saw E&R come back strongly and take advantage of Ubbsdell and Bidwell having ten minute “rests” on the sideline to score a penalty and unconverted try to take a 8 – 5 lead.
During a break in play Coach Flinn decided to let the team know he wasn’t overly impressed with their efforts to date and suggested they might well like to play a jolly bit better (or words to that effect!!!). The words obviously had a galvanising effect as a storming run from Burgess gave Bognor back a lead they were never to relinquish (12 -8). Shortly after an excellent charge down at a ruck by Bidwell lead to Lysgaht dotting down for Bognor’s third try (19-8). Sadly in charging the ball down Bidwell injured himself and was replaced by Mr Adam Booker for his first team debut.
Just before half time Bognor secured their bonus point try with some lovely hands down the blindside giving young Woody a nice run in to dot down for a try (he will be buying drinks to celebrate at next home game!! (24-8) which stayed unaltered until half time.
The half time discussion centred around a need for greater discipline, stiffer defence and not letting E&R back into the game. The words of the coaches clearly made a great deal of difference as E7R too advantage of some slack Bognor play to score two tries in quick succession to bring the score back to24-18 in Bognor’s favour, with 25 minutes to play. Thankfully at that point Bognor, with Teasdale now on for the limping Foote, managed to re-assert some control and worked their way upfield, where after a number of attacks were repelled, quick thinking from scrum half Hornibrook resulted in him sniping and going in under the sticks to give Bognor a bit of a cushion at 31-18.
Injuries were now causing Bognor real problems, with Voigt coming, meaning Captain Burgess happily reverted to his heyday position of centre (I think he said after the game hes happy to play centre whenever neded?!!?!?!).
With 15 minutes left on the clock, one of the E&R players decided he didn’t like Paddy and decided to give him a bit of right hand. Second row enforcer Stevens decided that this was not happening on his watch and decided to give the E&R player a bit of his own medicine. For some reason which no one can then quite work out, Full Back Newton-Young decided Shakey needed a bit of back up and came windmilling in like a demented octopus to help out his second row teammate – who clearly didn’t need any help at all!!! The ref then decided to dispense three more yellow cars, one to E&R and one each to Stevens and Newton Young, earning Bognor would play almost the rest of the game with 13 men.
Eventually the disruption of injuries and sin binnings proved too much for Bognor and E&R scored two quick well worked tries to bring the score bask to a very nervy 31-30 to Bognor.
With just seconds to go, a break from the E&R backs saw them make ground into ther Bognor half. Spotting that Bognor were short of cover, they switched the ball to the left and found themselves with a four on one overlap with only King of the gym Chris Hay standing between them and a walk in winning try. Fortunately Hay as clearly watched the great Mike Brown in action for Quins over the years and put in a thumping tackle to stop E&R dead in their tracks, eventually leading to a Bognor turnover, which Lysgaht managed to kick to touch (see he can kick to touch) giving Bognor the win.
Overall not a pretty game to watch, but a great team effort in grinding out a win on a day when we couldn’t really get our attacking game going. Six yellow cards for the two teams seemed a bit excessive in what was never really a dirty game (any rumours that the ref was sponsored by Clintons remain unproven!!!). Fantastic effort particularly by the forwards, particularly Chris Webb, Jamie Foote (especially as he was pretty ill) and Uggs, who carried and tackled like colossus all day, Shaun Bailey who threw in superbly in horrible conditions for a hooker and Shakey who took some great line out ball and made some lovely runs. Thanks also to Ethan Teasdale who got up from his sick bed to come and play at the eleventh hour – a proper team man.
Man of the Match – Chris Webb. DoD Tyson Newton-Young !!!