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GAINSBOROUGH 13 - BINGHAM 10 - 9th October 2004
Bingham's Gainsborough jinx struck again as they lost a hard fought game 13-10 despite having the manpower to have won it comfortably and outscoring their opponents by two tries to one. Bingham paid the penalty for not putting their match plan into action and failing to work together as a team.
Bingham played up the slope in the first half and gave away early penalties that quickly put them under pressure. The town side defended a trio of Gainsborough 5 yard scrummages with hard tackling and having withstood the early assault marched up the pitch themselves. They took control of the game, the Bingham scrummage in particular with props Dave Fairchild and Phil Ramage to the fore, wrecking their opposition's set piece, but couldn't find the continuity to keep pressure on the Lincolnshire team. Gainsborough were able to break out with long kicks downfield forcing Bingham to build from deep again. Centre Glenn Sutton had one strong run for the comer while wing Richard Hardy also went close being bundled out of play near the comer flag. Andy Towers was just wide with a penalty attempt but Bingham were content to go into the interval level at 0-0 knowing they had the slope in their favour in the second half.
Whether Bingham relaxed or Gainsborough upped their efforts was difficult to say, but the visitors did not press home their advantage. The home side unexpectedly broke out of defence almost scoring a long range try but were rewarded soon after when a penalty kick gave Gainsborough the lead. Bingham responded and after a narrow penalty miss took the lead when inside centre James Kelsey was driven over by his back row from a ruck 5 yards out. The conversion was missed and Bingham looked to have gained a grip on the match only to let it slip again. A miscued crossfield kick found it's way into the Gainsborough right wing's hands, and the Bingham defence seemed to open in front of him, allowing him to race in to score beneath the posts and with the conversion the home side led 10-5. Again Bingham came back as Gainsborough could not cope with Jon Thomas's domination of the line out leading to a succession of rolling mauls from Bingham. The forwards pushed Gainsborough's pack back over their line, Fairchild being credited with the try tying the score at 10-10. Bingham's conversion went agonisingly wide but with time running down even worse was to come when they gave away a long range penalty. Gainsborough's fly half punished Bingham with another accurate kick and this time Bingham couldn't find the way back.
Team: Phil Ramage; Rhuari Pike (rep Richard O'Hara); Dave Fairchild; Chris Bell (Capt); Ed Ranns; Keith Lowthian; Nicolas Tomba; Andy Lewis; Aivars Birznieks (rep Mark Brenton); Andy Towers; Richard Hardy; James Kelsey; Glenn Sutton; Ben Braund; Jon Thomas
Scorers: Tries- Kelsey, Fairchild
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