On a day that Otley had to reorganise their back line through unavailability (Cooper, DePledge and Mackie), Otley raced into a 12 point lead in the first 10 minutes and then managed to score another 12 in the last 10 to secure a draw.

Otley were given the privilege on playing on Bromsgrove’s second pitch, being the first opposition to play on it, the first pitch looking ‘well wet’ - so credit to the host’s groundsman. Ryan Duckett was delighted with the application shown by his players who were up again a side adept at ball retention and gave Otley few attacking possibilities.

Bromsgrove came out in determined mood and reduced Otley to defending but a turnover on 7 minutes, against the run of play, allowed Matthew Stephens the chance to charge through the middle who then passed to James Twomey. He raced down the remaining 40 metres on the right flank to go over. Two minutes later, some neat interplay saw Oliver Cicognini race down the opposite flank go over for his first XV try, Will Magie added the extras.

It was inevitable that Bromsgrove’s pressure would tell and after 18 minutes Oliver Bache came through Otley’s defence and offloaded to winger Jack Wardle to score. John Critchlow converting and then added a penalty on the half hour.

Otley’s defence held firm for the remainder of the half, and Bromsgrove continued the second half on the front foot and took the lead two minutes in when Jack Wardle took an excellent line to give compatriot Dave Hughes an easy score. Ten minutes later Bromsgrove extended their lead when Jack Wardle won the foot race against Harry Hudson to go over.

It was then Otley realised that if they were to get anything out of the game, now was the time to act. The last 20 minutes saw Otley batter the host’s line, and after Bromsgrove’s Chris McGregor was sin-binned, Otley’s pressure saw Ben Steele go over in the corner that was brilliantly converted by Will Magie. The return of McGregor did not break Otley’s resolve, and they forced a mistake out of the hosts and the subsequent boot up the field from Otley’s 22 was hacked up the field and James Twomey this time winning the race to score to level the score.

Will Magie had the chance to win it for Otley but his conversion went wide. Otley were fortunate to effectively come away with the spoils, having scored 4 tries to Bromsgrove’s to 3, and therefore had the bonus point. Ryan Duckett was pleased with the side playing, saying ‘We expected a battle and that’s exactly what we got, we stayed patient and managed to come away with some points, so I am delighted for them. I thought the spirit was tremendous. They played with some real intensity’.

James Twomey’s last minute try puts him level with the league’s other top try scorer, Drew Harper from Stourbridge, both have 18 tries. And James is now only nine tries behind Otley’s highest try scorer, Mark Kirkby.

With acknowledgements to Geoff Berkeley and John Finch.