After last weeks outstanding victory over Longlevens, Kingswood had a terrible week with injuries and cry-offs. The list of absentees stood at a crushing total of 11, with Damien Crosswell, Alex Green, Stan Bailey, Alastair Lewis, Dave Vince & Dave Tomlin all missing from the Forwards and Paul Allen, Gareth Pond, Ian Kirley, Steve Ridgway & Mark O’Connell missing from the Backs. Combine this with the fact that Kingswood Coach, Dan Montagu, was off playing for Bristol, it meant that it wasn’t the best start for Kingswood’s search for a 2nd win on the bounce.

Flanker Alex Evans started on the wing, there was a 1st XV debut for Jake Gent and for the 1st time this season, Kingswood’s 1st XV were joined by their former Captain, Neil Ward, who started on the bench. Matt Bryant, Mark McGarrigle and Ian Crook, also came into the squad.

Fortunately for Kingswood, Cheltenham arrived with no subs and no sideline support, so much so that Kingswood had to provide both linesmen for the game.

I will leave it to the videos to show you how well we played and how the game panned out, but sufficed to say, it was another excellent performance from Kingswood. Tries from Mark McGarrigle, Ben Phillips, Lewis Voisey and Joe Jones-Griffiths, plus a penalty from Ben Phillips, secured victory for Kingswood, along with a much needed bonus point. It was also a rare pleasure to have a referee that let the game flow, was extremely accurate with his decisions and was equally fair to both sides.

This victory sees Kingswood climb up to 4th in the league, an incredible achievement from the leagues new-comers.

A big thanks to Jane Flook as well for another batch of excellent photos!

Next week, Painswick away. Please come along and support the guys for this tricky encounter!

Final Score: Kingswood 29 - 5 Cheltenham Civil Service