Cotham Park RFC The closest Rugby club to Clifton in Bristol

After repeated postponements due to the weather the 1XV were finally able to play their away fixture up at Greyhounds RFC in Hereford. With the season drawing to a close and points now at a premium, we knew this would be a tough game against a team battling for survival. With Cotham suffering from end of season injuries and a prop having his testicles surgically removed at ‘Legally Blonde the musical’, it was an unfamiliar 1XV that eventually took to the pitch. I use the term ‘eventually’ as unbeknownst to us our coach driver took us wanting a lift to Hereford as us wanting a scenic 2 hour tour of the Forest of Dean. The only person glad of this fact was the teary eyed Wellsy who got to see his old back-water stomping ground, but his enjoyment was smashed to bits at the sight of his former youth club lying in ruins;

“I used to play rounders there!” was all he could muster as he sobbed into his hands.
Anyway, back to the game! I could sit here and reel off a play by play account of the epic encounter that took place at the windswept racecourse ground that afternoon, but I would struggle to fill a post card. With both teams hunting desperately for points at either end of the table this game turned into a tempestuous tug of war battle. The majority of the play was focused in the middle of the park with both teams trading good positional kicks and some equally good return of kick running, but both defenses stood resolute. Eventually Cotham began to get the upper hand and we slowly crept into their 22 where we set up camp. A penalty attempt form Ricky dropped narrowly short but we didn’t have to wait long for the deadlock to finally be broken. With Cotham dominating at the scrum the referee was struggling to keep the Greyhounds pack on their feet, with all his attention drawn to the mud-monkeys he failed to notice the Greyhounds centres repeatedly ignoring the offside line. He finally looked up to see them yet again flying forward to early, but with his arm out stretched for a penalty advantage to us, the backs shipped the ball quickly to the corner and Nick ‘Mr.Miyagi’ Comer streaked in by the corner flag; 5 - nil to Cotham. I’d like to say that this opened the flood gates for a rambunctious, rampaging, points-fest of a game, but sadly I do not have the heart to lie to you. As the game drearily rolled its way through to the end of the first half the only other points on the board went to the home team who snuck in with a simple penalty to make the score a ring-puckering 5-3 to Cotham.
The second half came and went in much the same fashion with both sides getting close to the opposition try line only to fail to convert their chances. In fairness to the opposition it was them that finished the strongest with several attempts on our line, but our defense stood strong and kept them at bay. In the closing 5 minutes Greyhounds had a penalty attempt fall short in an almost carbon copy of Ricky’s earlier attempt and also an ambitious drop goal that slid just wide; much to the dismay of the clearly one-eyed local supporters who were in raptures on the sidelines.

A dogged victory to the good guys in black and white that was probably the wake up call we needed as we go into the final 3 games of the season knowing that promotion is ours to lose!

Final Score: Greyhounds RFC 3 – 5 Cotham Park
Try: Nick Comer. MOM: Luke Davies. Whinger of the Afternoon: Luke Davies