Sat 4^th Nov 00

Ampthill Extras 7 – Potton 8

Try:   Rob Hill

Con:  Rob Hill

 Playing at home in front of the clubhouse, few of the Extras would have thought before the game that this would turn out to be the most disappointing results of the season so far.

 Ampthill started well, playing uphill they looked the much better side. A try and conversion, both from Rob Hill soon put the Extras 7 points in the lead.

 Shortly after, a minor fracas escalated when a Potton player ran from nowhere to through a series of punches. These unfortunately connected with an innocent Lee Bradley who had to leave the field to seek attention to a badly cut lip. The referee showed no hesitation in showing the guilty offender a red card. The game was much better off without this player.

 Ampthill continued to enjoy much more possession than the visitors, but silly handling mistakes prevented second phase flow to build a scoring base from. Matters were not helped when Dave Tomkins was yellow carded by the ref for an illegal tackle when he shoulder barged the Potton winger into touch.

 In the second half Ampthill, despite far more use of the ball still struggled to break the opposition down.

 Potton were awarded a penalty which they successfully kicked to reduce the deficit to just four point. Still the Extras failed to score.

 With just over five minutes remaining, the Potton fly-half managed to cross the line after a scrum just short of the Ampthill line. Now, a little late in the game, the extras started playing with some vigour. 

 Forwards pressure was rewarded with a penalty some twenty metres away from the Potton try line. Too far from the posts for an easy kick, the home team elected to run the ball. It was the final play of the game and the last roll of the dice. Wayne Peck made a sideways run towards the post only to be neck tackled some five metres away from the line. Now the penalty was awarded in an easily kickable position. A simple three points and victory would have been to the extras. This would have happened in an ideal ‘prop-less’ world.

 As it turned out Wayne, with his hands still on the ball decided to take a quick tap. The referee deemed this not to have been through the mark and blew the final whistle of the game.

  Luckily for Wayne the extras are a very forgiving team. By 7.30pm most of the team were again talking to him.

 It was good to see Phil Johnson return to the team after a long absence even though his comeback lasted all of five minutes when he suffered a calf strain and had to leave the field.