Cup final joy for United (From Gazette Series)

Cup final joy for United

Stroud District Junior Cup final Dursley United 35 Painswick 2nds 10

ON SUNDAY United captain Alan Smith lifted silverware destined for the Stragglers trophy cabinet and in the process completed a remarkable hat-trick.

In three consecutive seasons Smith has led teams in different capacities to cup glory and Fromhall Park in Stroud has been the venue on each occasion.

The first two tries of this match typified the dominance of the Dursley pack, and both were scored by the impressive Greg Keyse. His first came after a driving maul had the Painswick defence in disarray. Keyse took the ball five yards out, charged forward and bounced two defenders out of his path en route to the touchdown. Rich Oldham converted for the extra points.

The big number eight got his second within ten minutes of his first when the Dursley pack drove their opponents' scrummage backwards, with props Chris Sheldon and Mark Smith applying pressure to their opponents mercilessly.

Keyse picked up at the foot of the scrum and dived in from close range.

Painswick rallied briefly and were rewarded with a penalty which was slotted over from in front of the Dursley posts.

Within minutes of the restart Oldham stroked over a sweetly struck drop goal to again extend the United lead. He dropped another not five minutes later from a full 45 yards and the Painswick heads started to drop.

The third try of the game was a joy to watch. Ball side stepped his way past the Painswick scrum half and fly half before off-loading to Tom Lister who passed it onto Ted Thompson who charged forward and set up a maul.

Scrum half Lister was back in position, changed the direction of the play and set the back division in motion. When the ball eventually got to Hare he breached the Painswick defence and scored under the posts.

In the second half hooker Benny Price, the brains in the forward unit, had those around him giving everything. An early drive into the corner had the defences back pedalling and the maul went over the line and Sheldon went to ground for the try. From wide out fullback Tony Powell struck the conversion.

However, a lapse in concentration from Dursley saw the opportunist Painswick take a quick tap penalty and cruise through the sleeping maroon defence to score. The conversion was added.

But if anyone thought that there was to be a fightback they were to be disappointed as the Smiths (Gloucester) sponsored side simply took the ball back up field, went to the left, drew the cover defence and span the ball back across the pitch to the evergreen Mark Higginson who rounded his man and scored in the corner.

The final whistle went soon after and the celebrations began. In the Stroud clubhouse afterwards, Rich Oldham was awarded the second team player of the year prize.