2nds come 1st against Bedford

The opening five minutes of the match was an arm wrestle with neither team able to exert any dominance until Bedford’s second row was stretchered off with an ankle injury.

Kettering took advantage of the situation and spent the next 15 minutes inside the opposition half. Kettering flier, Boris then made a good break down the right wing, ending with Bedford’s 12 making a try saving tackle and pulling a hamstring in the process causing more upheaval to their line-up.

A special note should be made here of the excellent care that Doctor Tony and Nurse Robinson showed to the opposition casualties.

However, apart from a storming 50 metre kick in to the corner from fly half Ollie Furness which came to nothing, Kettering had little to show from the half.

The half ended on a bad note for the home side as a hard hit in midfield led to a fumble and kick through and resulted in a penalty to Bedford 5 metres out. A quick tap and swift recycling at the ruck saw the Bedford backs smash through some poor defending on the line giving them a 7-0 half time lead.

The second half was ignited by an excellent break from the home side scrum half, Ginge Featherstone who interlinked with James Taylor, before offloading to Gabriel Yorke, who touched down near the posts. Furness converted to level the scores.

Kettering continued to attack and from a scrum 30 metres out, with the blind side loaded, the ball went open to Taylor who sliced through the defence to score under the posts. Kettering now led 14-7.

Bedford did not capitulate and began a period of pressure in the Kettering half resulting in a number of penalties; one of which they kicked to the corner. From the resultant line out Bedford caught and drove over in the left hand corner. A superb conversion, in off the upright, tied the scores once again.

There was however, a final twist in the tail at the end, when a quick tapped penalty in midfield saw James Taylor crash through a couple of tackles, the ball being dislodged illegally, a couple more handling errors occurring and the outcome was that Matt Nield found himself behind the posts with the ball in his hands and the simple task of dotting down for the winning score. Furness converted.

Final score 21-14 to Kettering with the Man of the match award going to Ollie Furness.