Ashbourne fall at final hurdle
IT will be another year in Counties 2 Midlands East (North) for Ashbourne after their bid for promotion ended in a disappointing 60-19 defeat to rivals Nottingham Moderns, who slipped into second place in the table as a result.
Hard to take as the result was, in the end Moderns won four more games than Ashbourne and lost two fewer.
The Cocks are left to look back at a string of “what ifs” in what has nonetheless been a very good season.
They lost their first game of the season, at home to Moderns, by only one point, lost another to Nottingham Casuals by one point and to Derby seconds by three points.
They also drew two games, so they can point to very small margins which tipped the balance.
In addition, having started last week in second place, they had slipped behind Moderns in the table when the RFU finally made a decision about the Nottingham side’s recent abandoned game at home to Gainsborough.
The referee had called it off at half-time owing to a disciplinary issue but the league ruled that the fault lay with Gainsborough, who were losing heavily, and awarded five points to Moderns.
The Lincolnshire side may yet face further punishment, possibly with the loss of enough points to be relegated, but that is of no concern to Ashbourne.
Away to Moderns, they came up against a side in determined mood and found themselves 22-0 behind in the first half.
At the end of the half, there was a glimmer of hope when John Ford stripped the ball on his own five-metre line and gave it to skipper Jake Fernihough, who charged 20 metres before passing to Josh Wheeldon to give him a long-range run in.
However, Moderns ran away with the game in the second half
and it was not until the end of the game that Ashbourne managed a second try
A nice pass wide from Will Trethewey again put the speedy Wheeldon in space and he was able to outpace the defence and go in under the posts.
Jonny Riley converted one of the tries and James Hutchinson was named man of the match.
“It was an annoying one but they did play very well, to be fair to them,” said Ashbourne’s Eddie Trethewey.
“But even when the game was out of our reach we kept going back at them, which was showed by the effort to get the last minute try and we were able to hold our heads high after the game.”
Club stalwart Martin Farr added: “It’s a shame, as we wanted to get back up a level but we have a lot of young players who have learned a lot this season.”
Ashbourne seconds finished their season strongly, winning five of their last six matches to stave off the threat of relegation in Counties 3 Midlands East (Central).
They finished with a 21-12 win at home to Southwell seconds to end in 10th place of 12 in the division.
The thirds have won Staffs League Two in their first season.
Now the first team turn their attention to the Papa John’s Cup competition and have a bye in the first round, so they will be playing Market Drayton on April 20.
The Colts are in action this Saturday in their NLD Plate final against Kesteven at Chesterfield (not Tupton as originally scheduled). The game kicks off at 1pm.