“Weston misfire at bogey ground.”

Bracknell 17 Weston s Mare 14
“Weston misfire at bogey ground.”

Mother said there would be days like this! A grey day in the even greyer London dormitory town after a three year absence, and a sub standard disorganised performance saw Weston lose narrowly for the first time this season against a pumped up and motivated opposition anxious to re-establish themselves in the League after previous relegation, and last seasons’ promotion from South West 2. Both sides scored a try apiece. Weston converted three penalties, Bracknell four in a generally uninspiring game which the visitors probably shaded in terms of possession and ambition, but did not put away their chances, and the home side, for the most part, defended stoutly. Weston took the lead after eight minutes with a Mackay penalty but three minutes later lost their captain and cornerstone prop forward Swann to a calf injury. His replacement Price performed admirably for the whole match but options, and an area of huge superiority was compromised. The home side took the lead after 15 minutes in fortunate circumstances. Russell was illegally impeded at the lineout…..unpunished, and Bracknell found themselves with surprise possession against a flat footed defence. Their fly-half Prescott, a summer import from L.I. Wild Geese (and one must ask what on earth is going on there!!?) waddled through the huge gap to score under the posts. He missed the conversion.
The visitors re-took the lead when from one of the few flowing moves of the game, Mackay broke through Nowaks’ tackle to create the overlap for full back Skelton to score unimpeded. The conversion was also missed. 8-5 to WSM. Prescott found his cooking boots to score a penalty on the stroke of half time, and equality.
Not much happened in the second half. Bracknell continued to defend heroically, and Weston dominated territorially, looking more likely to score but invariably making errors and wrong decisions which gave the ball back to the hosts. Bracknell had one promising foray where they briefly threatened a score from a driving maul on a rare visit to the visitors’ end, but it came to nothing.
The whole second half can be summarised succinctly…two penalties to Weston, three to Bracknell. Skeltons’ last minute penalty attempt from over fifty metres fell short amid manic whoops of delight from the opposition. …Weston will hopefully not play as badly again. The Londoners will doubtless enjoy the “freedom of Bracknell”…at least for another week.
A positive from a generally unsatisfactory day was the excellent hospitality and the “bonhomie” of the Bracknell committee and supporters. Welcome back to the South West…it’s too good for London!
Weston team….Skelton, Watkins, Smee, Edwards, Blizzard (Sprague), Mackay, Waldon, Swann (Price) Burge, Hobbs, Bufton, Russell, Webber, Morrissey (Eaton), Sparks.
Weston are at home against Brixham on Saturday 28th. kick off at 3.00 p.m.