BLETCHLEY maintained their strong home form in the South West 1 East league with an 18-7 win against struggling Newbury Blues.
They may have had their problems away from home, but at Manor Fields Bletchley are a force to be reckoned with, and Saturday’s success against Newbury was their fourth win in six games on their own patch.
A trip to Witney this Saturday brings another chance to pick up that elusive first away victory, but going into the game sat nicely in eighth place, Bletchley will go there full of confidence.
The hosts opened the scoring after 12 minutes when Adam Dempsey crashed over, with Bletchley playing some of their best rugby of the season as good handling and running lines came together.
After missing the conversion attempt, Phil Harman slotted over a penalty to extend their lead on 20 minutes, but that was the end of the first half scoring as the visitors failed to make anything of their occasionally foray into Bletchley’s half.
Another Harman penalty made it 11-0 midway through the second half to give Bletchley some breathing space, but Newbury were not beaten yet and enjoyed a 15 minutes period of domination.
They couldn’t make anything of it though, and instead Bletchley went down the other end to increase their lead further. A quick tap caught the visitors napping and Chris Coussell touched the ball down as the pack mauled over the line. Harman added the extras and Bletchley were looking good at 18-0 in front.
Newbury finally got some points on the board with a converted try in the closing stages, and suddenly they realised they might be able to leave with a bonus point if they scored another.
The last three minutes of play were frenetic as they desperately tried to do so. However, Bletchley’s defence held firm and the final whistle brought another good home win, even if they might feel slightly disappointed not to have secured a try-scoring bonus point.
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