Newmarket 21-45 Beccles Bulls

Eastern Counties 1

10/11/01

The Bulls, currently sitting joint top of the table needed a strong performance travelling away against mid-table Newmarket on Saturday to further their promotion prospects. Judging from Newmarket's points for and against it would appear they were going to have to work hard to open up a side that has already played some of the league leaders and given little away. As it turned out the Bulls lead from the opening 10 minutes and added points at will in 2 'purple patches' one in each half.
With a youthful new look pack missing stalwarts Moon, Hepton and Shales the Bulls struggled in the scrummage but mastered the line-out regardless of the fact that Newmarket's jumpers certainly looked proficient. Beccles secured all their own ball and stole their hosts on numerous occasions.

Their hosts opened the scoring as Beccles settled with fly-half Haywood striking a well struck penalty in the opening minutes to secure 3 points of a tally that was to amount to a personal haul of some16 points as the day wore on.
Beccles marched back up the field from the restart and after a sustained series of forward drives against the home try line it was Jon Payne who finally breached the defence for a fine three-quarter try. 10 minutes later a similar passage of play forced Newmarket into some stout defensive work before centre Dilly Dawson crunched through under the posts after a simple pop-pass from Jon Puxley who happily added a simple conversion.

From the restart the Bulls attacked immediately with skipper Owen Hadridge to the fore who slipped down the blind side taking play deep into the Newmarket 22 meter area before slipping the ball inside to Darren Ley in support who dived over for another try. Payne added a penalty moments later to bring the Bulls tally to 20 points before Haywood added another penalty to add to the home score sheet.

With half time fast approaching Newmarket finally found the Bulls try line after some poor defensive work at the restart allowed the home side to build up momentum and their forwards worked a rolling maul over from a 5 meter line-out with flanker Alistair Scott claiming the try under a heap of bodies to bring the home score to 11 points at the break.

Half time saw David Rix replace Ley and he put in a sterling performance on the flank. The Bulls started the half strongly with a passage of possession that eventually saw Payne put in a fine chip through a very flat home defence for No8 Andy Warnes, popping up on the 'familiar' wing position after a sneaked rest, to beat the home winger to the diving touchdown.
Haywood struck yet another penalty in response before adding a try of his own after spinning out of 2 tackles to crash over and he stepped up to add the conversion. This haul bought Newmarket up to 21 points and within a score of the Bulls on 25, but as it was to evolve this would be as close as they would get for the rest of the match.

From then on it was all Beccles. Puxley stepped up at the first possible opportunity to strike a penalty and then another moments later to re-instate the score 'cushion' for the Bulls.
The next try was the pick of the match when from a line-out on the half-way Rix fed the ball off the top to Hadridge who spun a diving pass out to fly-half Puxley. Some sleight of hand midfield involving a dummy with Dawson and a lovely floated missed pass behind Payne put full-back Matt Kerry in front of a gap in the defence going flat-out. Scything through on to his opposite number a simple pass out to winger Ian Turrell was all that it required for Turrell to gallop in under the posts untouched. Puxley added the simplest of conversions.

Young Will James who filled his position comfortably and shows great promise for the future in potentially a number of three-quarter positions then replaced Turrell, exerted by his efforts. Charlie Townsend came onto the unaccustomed flank position to replace limping Dave Kingston and also take over his line-out duties for the 1st time ever, an experience he wishes never to repeat!

Even reshuffled the Bulls continued to dominate in the backs and up front contesting for the ball at every break down. Unfortunately Chris Hinsley at open-side flanker playing the entire game on the edge of the law was adjudged to have overstepped the mark once too many times for the referee and was sin binned for the last 10 minutes leaving the Bulls to play with only 14 men in the closing stages.

However they rose to the challenge and even when Newmarket rallied and took play close to the visitors try line on a number of occasions the Bulls put their bodies on the line countless times to thwart their efforts.
With seconds to play Hadridge put No8 Warnes into space down the blind side he dummied the covering three-quarters and out sprinted the remainder of the home defence from the halfway line to touchdown under the posts, much to the consternation of the home supporters. Puxley sealed the game for the Bulls with another fine conversion stroked through the posts.

Andy Warnes.

Beccles Press Officer.