Archers suffer the Blues in home loss

NOTTINGHAM suffered a 34-24 home defeat against Bedford Blues in the Championship.

Bedford took the lead with a Dean Adamson try inside the first minute and remained ahead from there.

The Green and Whites nearly hit back five minutes later when Jack Stapley broke through but some great defence by Bedford meant Sam Green couldn’t hold onto the offload and the visitors were able to get their hands on it and counter.

After that early scare, Bedford never even looked like surrendering their lead and Will Maisey added to their score with an easily kicked penalty right in front of the posts on 15 minutes.

Nottingham got a try of their own soon after though, winning a penalty at the halfway line and kicking to the corner put them in prime position to score. A couple of driving mauls later and Archie Van Der Flier was able to get the ball down over the line.

Bedford rallied and hooker James Fish got over the line twice in fairly quick succession.

The two teams exchanged tries in the final 10 minutes before the brea, with Seb Ferreira scoring his first try in the green and white jersey, while Oisin Heffernan burrowed his way over the line.

The second half looked like it would be more of the same for Craig Hammond’s men early on, as their first lineout of the half sailed over the pack and landed straight in the hands of Heffernan. However, it wasn’t long after that when Ryan Olowofela intercepted a wayward pass and took it all the way to the try line to shrink the gap to eight points.

But Bedford worked their way up inside the Nottingham 22 and finished excellently with Robin Williams diving over the line. The Archers found a silver lining with a bonus point try in the final minute, as Marcus Ramage touched down.