The longest heart-in-the-mouth match – last boot Blues victory!
Back home after a while, and a difficult time at Cleve, Newbury Blues faced Witney at Monks Lane.
A bit of a challenging season but, with Newbury standing ahead of Witney in the league, fans thought there had to be a reasonable prospect of a win. And the first 3 penalty points to the Blues, from the boot of Captain Dan Thorne, seven minutes into the first half was just what they expected.
The Blues seemed to be playing ahead of Witney for most of the first half but Witney’s try at 22 minutes or so was more than purposeful; they meant business. And they continued to add points, with a converted try, while the Blues missed a penalty kick. The teams went in 14:3 in Witney’s favour at half time.
The second half sort-of belonged to the Blues but they nearly made the try line so many times without clocking the points and Witney had a lot to say about who was going to win, without getting any points either. Mostly a good-humoured match, there was nevertheless a yellow card against Witney halfway through the second half.
The Blues made a try ten minutes before the end but, agonisingly, the conversion that would have put them ahead, bounced off the post.
Oh crikey, fans watched and gasped. It was 14:14. Play went from end to end. Both teams were in it.
And the Ref awarded a penalty in the Blue’s favour right in the final seconds. Dan Thorne made good this time. A win 17:14!
The Newbury Blues are home again next week on 13th December to host Cheltenham. Come on you Blues!
Photo by kind permission of Redwater Images
