Gloucester One

Dursley 8 Bredon 7

A TRY by Simon Camm secured victory by the narrowest of margins for Dursley in their first league encounter with Bredon.

The start of this game was delayed due to thunder, lightening and heavy rain.

Spirits were lifted by the attendance on the touch line of Rob Camm, a Dursley player who was paralysed in a tragic road accident just over a year ago.

Dursley made a strong start and seemed to gain the benefit of the greasy ball with several knock-ons by Bredon following well placed kicks over the top by full back Olli Halford.

The scrum worked well with the front row of Ash Young at prop – returning from injury – Alex Budd and young Ty Chappel holding the much bigger and more experienced opposition.

With Grant Boucher playing, scrum half James Sheldon was brought in at fly half and he set out his defensive stall with some excellent tackling.

With seven minutes gone and following some sensible kicking by Dursley they gained a penalty 30 metres out in front of the posts, which was comfortably slotted by Boucher to give them the lead.

From the restart Bredon regrouped and punished Dursley with a converted try, moving the score to 3-7.

The Dursley lineout was working well with some excellent takes by Jack Western and Jack Robson.

Despite good breaks by winger Brad Winchle, centres A J Caddick and Damien Cummings and No 8 Harry Lea, neither team added to the scoreline before half-time.

The second half started with Bredon holding most of the possession but strong tackling by Sheldon and Budd and good defence by Robson, Andy Plumridge and Simon Camm stopped the charge inside their own five metres.

Midway through the half Bredon missed a penalty and then had a man sent to the sin bin.

With 10 minutes left to play, strong work by the forwards and several pick and drives saw Camm crash over to score and Dursley took the lead 8-7, but the conversion was pushed wide by Boucher.

Bredon were back to full numbers and despite a yellow card for Budd in the closing minutes the Dursley defence held strong against continued pressure to win a penalty for Boucher to kick to touch and end the game.

Dursley are now lying in fourth place in the league, sharing the same points as two of the teams above them, and are looking forward to their next match this Saturday away to old adversaries Brockworth.