Sat 21^st  Oct 00

Towcester  4^ths 12 – Ampthill Extras 24

15      Aiden Harrington                  1   Brian Geary  

14      Mal Devlin                            2   Brian Todd         

11      Gary Bass                              3   Paul Rigby              

13   Keith White                           4   Lee Bradley

12   Matt Taylor                           5   Terry Norford

10   Rob Hill                                 6   Liam Duffin (c) 

9     Laurie Barlow                        7   Gez Ingarfield

   8   Andy Walker

Tries:    Liam Duffin, Laurie Barlow  (2), Rob Hill                        

Cons:    Rob Hill (2)

      At eleven o’clock Saturday morning the Extras were down to thirteen available men due to last minute dropouts. With a few phone calls the team was up to a full fifteen by one o’clock.

 The long journey to Towcester was fruitful for the Ampthill side with the pack enjoying dominating the scrums for most of the game. However not everything was going Ampthill’s way and it was Towcester that drew first blood after some sloppy defending allowed them to score the first try of the game.

 The extras responded by keeping the ball tight in the pack and slowly grinding their way toward the Towcester line. The equalising score came when a well set maul was formed yards short of the home team’s line, Brian Geary released the ball to Liam Duffin who with the aid of Rob Hill scrambled across the line. With Rob then converting the score was 7 – 5 in Ampthil’s favour.

 Scrum half Laurie Barlow was next to score when he broke through from the back of a set piece and darted through the Towcestrian defence to touch the ball down.

 The second half saw much the same as the first with the Ampthill pack shoving the home team back in the scrums. The next try for Amps was a much deserved solo effort for Laurie Barlow. Laurie, breaking blind down the wing he chipped the ball over a defender, caught it himself and ran forty yards to the try line outpacing the home teams winger.

 There was a moment of lapsed concentration when Towcester scored a try to bring the scoreline to 17 – 12. This seemed to wake the Extras up. Soon after Rob hill at fly half jinked his way through the defence and dived for the line. From the angle that Rob and most of the Ampthill team saw it the ball looked just short of the line. Fortunately the ref with his far superior vision saw that it had in fact crossed the line and a try was awarded.

 The Extras travelled home 24 points to 12 victors leaving themselves just four wins away from the chairman’s free beer offer.