Kingswood Crash Out Of The Bristol Combination Cup

An early 2009 fixture saw Kingswood travel to Aretians for a Bristol Combination Cup fixture. It would have been nice to battle it out with higher league opposition on a level playing field but with the match so close to Xmas, Kingswood sadly suffered from a high amount of absenteeism. The clubs top try scorer, Paul Allen, and Centre partner Gareth Pond, were both unavailable which meant Kingswood started with a untested Centre partnership of Ben Lambert and Chris Phillips. Kingswood's top try scorer in the Forwards, Steve Trevelyan, was also unavailable. Steve Ridgeway, Mike Oakley, Rob Lamb, Ian Crook and Ben Phillips were also out of action for Kingswood.

It was another bitterley cold day in Bristol and the pitch was frozen to the core, making it very tricky underfoot. Kingswood started well but were unable to break into the Aretians half of the pitch with ball in hand. The game saw it's first try with 9 minutes on the clock after good work in the Forwards from Aretians before they spread the ball wide in the Backs and No. 7 went over in the corner. An excellent conversion from outwide by Aretians No. 9 gave them a 7-0 lead.

Just after the quarter of an hour mark, Aretians extended their lead with a penalty kick 10-0. Kingswood responded just 3 minutes later when Ian Kirley sent a penalty kick through the uprights to make the score 10-3.

With half an hour gone, Aretians thought they had scored but the linesman flagged for a foot in touch in Kingswood's 22. The lineout to Kingswood was secured and cleared but Aretians Winger caught the high ball and ran full pelt back at Kingswood and some missed tackles meant he crashed over the line. Another good conversion meant Aretians led 17-3 at half time.

Half Time: Aretians 17 - 3 Kingswood

Two penalties to Kingswood at the start of the 2nd half gave Ian Kirley the chance to pull 3 points back for the visitors and Kirley accepted to make the score 17-6.

Sadly, this was the last points scoring in the 2nd half for Kingswood and Aretians went on to secure the victory with another try and penalty late on which meant Kingswood's Cup run was ended for another year.

Kingswood now have two weeks to run off the excesses of Christmas before they face Tetbury in the league on the 24th.

Final Score: Aretians 25 - 6 Kingswood