October 27^th 2007 Midlands 6 South League match

Kempston 61 – 0 Aylestonians

With the first team in a buoyant mood from last weeks clinical 50 point win over Thorney, the first team management were clearly alert to the fact that today could potentially be a banana skin for the league campaign. Each player quiet in confidence and ready to put their bodies on the line for a potentially tough encounter.  

Ayelstonians kicked off to Kempston who secured the ball and opted to run the ball putting it through several pairs of hands to the wings making substantial territory gains early on. Ayelstonians were put under pressure early on and in the first couple of waves of attacks the final pass or final drive was thwarted by a gritty Ayelstonians defence. Ayelstonians answer to the applied pressure was to kick away possession with the reliable K’s fullback, Paul Leggott, counter attacking successfully each time including a monster of a kick outside his 22 that bounced the right side of the line for a good territory gain.  

The first try came from 4 phases of picking and driving taking out several Ayelstonian defenders and quick thinking from scrumhalf Craig Cunnington with a long pass to the blind side saw Andrew Stock score an unconverted try in the far right hand corner.

 A clean catch from the kick off by Richard Dell saw that K’s could apply more pressure to Ayelstonians with gains made by Tim Argent and Wayne Botha in the centre from simple moves orchestrated by James Bayliss in the No 10 jersey. The pressure then paid off with Wayne taking the ball down the blindside and chipping over the defence for Adam May to gather cleanly and beat two defenders and score under the posts, with Bayliss adding the extra’s. 

The next wave of attack from, put K’s just outside the Ayelstonians 22 and the reliable and impartial referee awarded a penalty for offside and in the resulting advantage the Ayelstonian openside flanker injured his neck in a ruck. With off duty policeman and fireman in abundance in the K’s team, medical help was administered quickly in the wait for the ambulance.  

With the score line being 12 – 0 and the fact that Ayelstonians only bringing one replacement, their team voiced that the fixture should be postponed due to this injury and that one of their other players would have to accompany the injured player. Captain Craig Cunnington spoke with his counterpart who tried to get the game abandoned due to Ayelstonians failing to bring a full compliment of reserves with them.  

The game continued with Kempston scoring two tries before halftime through a slick move with Tim Argent powering over from a miss move and using his fullback to throw a dummy and score the converted try.  

A few indecisions by players with white line fever stopped K’s scoring more than the final first half try through Wayne Botha which was duly converted by James Bayliss.

Half time 26 – 0 to Kempston

The flood gates opened for 21 minutes of the second half with 5 converted tries that were scored through Tim Argent, Wayne Botha (2), Dan Hawkins and Terry Stokes all converted by James Bayliss. Ayelstonians had a 2 minute passage of play where for 8 phases they got into K’s half only to turn the ball over and for K’s to score their last try through Terry Stokes.

Full time 61 – 0 to Kempston.

Special mentions must go to the second row partnership of Richard Dell and Andrew Stock for providing the team with secure ball at restarts and lineouts. Jim Barry for his work around the park and a faultless display from the backs for using attacking rugby against a passive defence. Next week see’s a break from league rugby with a friendly versus Dunstablians 2nds.