Kingswood Blow Title Hopes With Disappointing Home Draw

A disappointing performance by Kingswood saw them come away with only 1 point from their league match with 3rd place Cotham Park. Kingswood started well and Dean Stephens was unfortunate not to put Kingswood 3-0 up after 3 mins, when a penalty kick cruelly struck the post. 9 minutes in and Kingswood made their good pressure count when Stan Bailey played a quick tap penalty out to Steve Trevelyan who went over from only 5 metres out. Dean Stephens made the resulting conversion look easy from a difficult angle and distance and Kingswood were 7-0 to the good.

Cotham Park then had a good spell of pressure, but the Kingswood defence was equal to it and denied them a try when it looked inevitable. Kingswood then had a scrum in their own half from which Dave Vince received the ball and broke free to make great ground, before it was passed out to Neil Ward and eventually Al Green, who was tackled 10 metres out. Kingswood camped out in Cothams half as a result of the break and they were soon awarded a penalty just 5 metres from the try line. Dave Vince's quick thinking saw him tap the ball to himself and he drove over the line to bag himself a try. The resulting kicked was missed but Kingswood found themselves 12-0 up.

Kingswood and Cotham then battled it out in the middle of the park before Cotham pulled a try back after a good spell of pressure, right on the stroke of half time and the first half finished with the score at 12-7.

The 2nd half of the game was a different story with both teams again battling in midfield with little try scoring opportunities. Cotham Park then had their number 2 sin-binned on 56 minutes, but Kingswood could not make the extra man count. James Dicks was replaced by Courtney Imobeke on 60 minutes and although he was still nursing a back injury from the previous week, Ben Phillips came on to replace Rich Francis after 70 minutes.

Cotham then managed to score another try on 72 mins but luckily missed the resulting kick and the scores were level at 12-12. Kingswood were then required to defend well for the rest of the match to keep the scores level. Kingswood thought they had scored near the end, but the referee deemed that there was an earlier dangerous tackle committed and Cotham were awarded a penalty.

Ben Feltham replaced Neil Ward for the last 5 minutes of the match and there was time for another sin-binning for Cotham Park, when their number 9 was yellow carded. A disappointing 2nd half ended with the scores level at 12-12.