17^th March 2007
Ampthill Extras 28  – Bedford Queens 2^nd XV 7 

Back in November, the Extras played their home fixture versus Queens away due to pitch congestion at Ampthill. On that day an Ampthill player, prop Darren Oatley, ended up officiating the match as no match official had turned up from the society. Despite being down a prop the Extras dominated the match from the onset. The Extras started the second half three tries to nil ahead. Unfortunately, after ten minutes of the second half, there was a neck injury to Ampthill’s Andy Weeks. The ensuing delay waiting for an ambulance to arrive meant the game could not continue.  

Desperate for a win, the Queens captain insisted that the result could not stand and the match, under league rule 7, sub section 22 part (a) would have to be replayed. The Queens’ captain sited that in most of their games they go down twenty or so points and then come back to win due to their younger fitter team. Well, that decided it, the contest would have to be replayed, even if only for the Extras to see the magnificent Queens’ bouncebackability. 

So here we were, four months down the line replaying the match. Within moments of starting Johnny Jigsaw Browning put the Extras a try ahead. Successfully converting his own try, Jigsaw had put the Extras seven points to nil ahead. The score stayed this way for quite some time. The Extras enjoyed the lion’s share of possession and territory but converting this into points was eluding them. Things got worse for the Extras when defending their try line, a misunderstanding between the half-backs, gifted Queens with a try after the ball was spilled by the Extras over their own line. 

The scores were level as the match reached the half way stage. This is where the Extras should have started to show a great deal of concern as the Queens’ ‘younger and fitter team would bounce back and take the victory’. But Johnny Jigsaw and the boys had other ideas. 

The second half saw the Extras dominate the set pieces. Queens were being driven backwards in most of the scrums and jumper Justin Cobley was snatching both Queens and Ampthill ball from the line outs. 

The backs both defended well and were strong on the attack. Centre Will Sneath was flying around the park putting in big hits and running well with the ball, Rob Hill was a safe pair of hands under the ball turning Queens’ kicks into Extras’ attacks.

Jigsaw Browning scored a further two tries, the second of which he caught a high ball well in his own half and attacked the Queens backs, handing off three players before scoring. Tom Gray got Ampthill’s fourth. The Queens come back never took off and the Extras ended up winning by twenty one points, two more than they were winning by in the abandoned match back in November.