Market Bosworth beat top of table team

THE visitors to Cadeby Lane on Saturday had not lost a game this season and consequently were joint top of the league whereas Market Bosworth were already down to fifth having lost to Northampton Casuals by three points last week. The good news is that Market Bosworth ended up taking a 22-17 win over the visiting team.

But the game didn’t start well. Within three minutes from the kick off the Old Scouts number eight ran in a try under the posts and with the conversion Bosworth found themselves seven points down straight away. The home side could have responded quickly but a penalty opportunity was wasted by the ball going dead instead of finding touch.

A second opportunity was also lost when having found touch this time from a subsequent penalty kick the line out was lost and play reverted to the middle of the field. Bosworth managed to keep play in the Old Scouts half for the next ten minutes but they failed to cross the line and the game developed into quite a spectacle with plenty of open rugby keeping the crowd enthralled.

Once again Bosworth got to within five metres of the line only to knock the ball on. Several scrums followed with the referee eventually awarding Bosworth a penalty try due to the Old Scouts repeatedly killing the ball.

Bosworth kept the pressure on and returned immediately to their try line but the Old Scouts put up an excellent defence to keep Bosworth out. The home scrum discovered that they had the edge and started to win ball after ball pushing the visitors off their own put in and at fifteen metres out another successful heel got the ball passed out to centre Harry Milner who touched down under the posts for Mitch Culpin to convert.

The Bosworth scrum became rampant, pushing the visitors all over the park but unable to create points and eventually being penalised for not releasing the ball and so gifting a scoring opportunity to one of the Old Scouts centres to run through and touch down under the posts which with the easy conversion levelled the score at half time at fourteen points each.

The start of the second half was a different picture with the Old Scouts having found some strength from somewhere able to push Bosworth around now only for their hooker to upset the referee and get a yellow card as punishment.

Quickly taking advantage of the situation Bosworth won the next scum and Ricky Wickwar dived over for the third try but the conversion attempt failed. Bosworth kept winning line outs and scrums but failed to create scoring opportunities due to the strong Old Scouts defence until the referee spotted some dangerous play in front of the visitors posts allowing Culpin to slot the ball over for another three points.

The Old Scouts pulled their socks up so to speak and started to attack the Bosworth line constantly, but due to some resolute defence they were kept out and the ball eventually cleared by Harry Milner.

With eight minutes left Old Scouts cut the deficit by three points with a successful penalty kick but it was to no avail as they could not improve anymore on the score no matter how hard they tried.

Strong play by Milner and Randon kept the visitors at bay until the final whistle, blown when a Bosworth player intercepted an Old Scouts pass but knocked the ball on accidently according to the visiting referee from the Eastern Counties and he calling time without allowing a scrum to take place. Final score Market Bosworth 22 Northampton Old Scouts 17 letting Bosworth leapfrog them and jump up to third place in the league with eleven points from three games. Another rest day this weekend and then an away game at St Ives the following Saturday.