Match Report - Nailsea & Backwell 54 - 33 Weston IIs
Before Kick off, former Ravens captain, Tony “Dog” Perfect, delivered the match ball for the game after walking 105km from Worcestershire to West End Park, Nailsea to raise money for the Doddle Weir Foundation which funds research into Motor Neurone Disease. The feat seemed to inspire both sides as the crowd were treated to 13 tries!
The Ravens started quickly with Tom Crossman going over from a driving maul before he intercepted the ball from a Weston attack and shipped on to Joe Collins for the first of his brace. The Ravens quickly added a third through the pace of Dom Gordon after slick handling in the backs, and with Jamie Elswood adding two conversions 19-0 was a solid start!
Weston regrouped and started to keep the ball through multiple phases first crossing the try-line through Hayden Main, and then Chris Young, with Archie Tilsley adding one of the extras to make the score 19-12.
Nailsea had to respond and Captain, Luke Sharp, shouldered the responsibility by offloading for Crossman’s second try. With Elswood completing the conversion it made the Half-Time score 26-12.
After the break, a penalty was awarded to N&B and Jamie Elswood stepped up to what appeared to be a routine kick to the corner. Catching the whole Weston defence napping though, he cross field kicked in the other direction to Joe Collins in acres of space to score unopposed.
If the game looked over at 33-12 then nobody told Weston! A try from an overthrown line-out was scored by Wilf Bright, quickly followed by further scores from Billy Kirk and full back Ross Bennett ! With Tilsley completing the conversions the game was 33-33.
The Ravens knew that to stand any chance of winning the league they had to win this game and the character of the side shone through with replacement Luke Caswell coming on and smashing his way over for a try! When Mike Frohlich outpaced the tiring Weston defence the offload to Man of the Match, Crossman, rounded off his hat trick.
Nick Badcock completed the scoring with Elswood adding the conversions to make a final score of 54 - 33 in a pulsating match.
As the news filtered through that Hornets IIs had lost against Minehead, next weeks fixture appears to be a 'winner takes all' title decider between Nailsea and Hornets. Kick off is at 15:00 at Hornets. It will be great to get as much Ravens support as possible along for this crunch game!
Match Report Credit - Tony Hill
Photo Credit - Mark Raby
