St.Ives Roosters welcomed their nearest rivals Bedford Tigers to California Road on Saturday afternoon. Roosters welcomed back long term absentees Mickey Drake and John Paxton into the side. Tommy Newman started at prop to continue his 100% season which has seen him score 5 tries in 4 games.

Bedford started on the offensive and, despite some huge hits in midfield from Rhod Howcroft and Newman, they went over the whitewash twice inside the first 10 minutes to take a 0-10 lead.

The rain was lashing down and causing both sides problems with holding on to the ball. A knock-on by Bedford on their own try line gave Roosters a chance to get back in the game and with Howcroft crashing in 10 meters out, he was never going to be stopped. Converted by Ashbridge 6-10.

The next 10 minutes rocked the Roosters side as they lost Howcroft, Jamie Noble and Curtis Weaver through nasty looking injuries. Bedford then ran in two converted scores to widen the gap to 6-22 and they would've been further in front if it wasn't for full back John Paxton. Bedford broke the line twice more only to be met by crunching tackles from the veteran and used all his experience to give his team mates time to get back in the line.

Roosters managed to regroup before the halftime whistle and scored twice to get themselves back in the game. The first came from crowd favourite Drake, Bedford were struggling to cope with the footwork from the pivot as he jinked his way through numerous tackles to dive over the line. Converted by Ashbridge. The second came from David Sykes with ANOTHER trademark score from close in, sometimes his style leaves flair players frustrated but his ability to drag his side back into games of late has been invaluable. Halftime score 16-22.

The second half was littered with handling errors as the rain continued to lash down on a typical July winters day. The crowd scoffed when Bedford opted to kick a penalty in front of the posts and minutes later sent a drop goal through the uprights but later those decisions would become decisive.

For the last 20 minutes the Roosters played some fantastic flowing rugby despite the rain but left the crowd and coach frustrated when they couldn't finish their chances off. Paul Ashbridge nicked the ball from the Bedford scrum and stretched over to touch down, not pretty but Roosters we're desperate with a few minutes remaining. He picked himself up and converted to take the score to 22-25. There was still time to attack from the kick off but the ball was knocked on and changed hands no less than 5 times in the last 2 minutes to really slow the game down and sap any momentum that Roosters might have had. Full time 22-25.