BOGNOR 40 WORTHING 2 17

Bognor’s scheduled league fixture was unfortunately called off on Thursday evening because Alton were unable to raise a team. This meant that Bognor were awarded five points for a walkover, thus consolidating their position outside the relegation zone. Fortunately for Bognor, Worthing 2 travelled to Hampshire Avenue and, in front of a large crowd, provided some strong opposition in an entertaining match.

Bognor started strongly and, after just seven minutes, centre Jeremy Newton-Young executed a fine cut-out pass to put away flying winger Tyrone Makasi. The speedster needed no second invitation as he crossed in the corner for Bognor’s opening try. Fly-half Brad Caparo converted from the touchline, the first of what would turn out to be five successful kicks at goal.

Worthing hit back almost immediately, their impressive threequarter line causing problems in the home defence and cantering over for a first-phase try after a strong scrum.

Ten minutes later Bognor regained the lead when Makasi scored his second try, again converted by Caparo. It was already clear that, with both sides prepared to throw the ball around, this was going to be a high-scoring afternoon.

Veteran No.8 Josh Burgess was enjoying making a thorough nuisance of himself as usual and, after one of his trademark charges, he offloaded to his backrow colleague Jamie Foote who has stated publicly that he intends to finish ahead of last season’s top-tryscorer, Makasi. Foote was as good as his word as he dispatched three would-be tacklers before crashing over near the posts.

Matt Norrell was the next forward to enjoy the wide-open spaces but the young second row’s final pass was not as good as his break and the pass went to ground. His partner, Ollie Crowe, made no such mistake when he broke straight through the middle and steadied himself in order to give a perfect pass to the supporting Alfie Spurle. The scrum-half, enjoying a fine game, touched down under the posts, Caparo’s conversion giving Bognor a 28-12 half-time lead.

The second half began with Norrell making amends for his earlier mistake by charging down a kick and allowing Foote to take a step nearer his personal ambition by scoring his second try of the match.

With the result no longer in doubt the match became scrappy and tempers frayed on both sides, the referee doing well to keep things under control. The highlight of the second half came when Makasi and Teddy Wood combined to pull off three superb try-saving tackles between them and save a certain try. Unfortunately, a mistake soon afterwards by the otherwise impeccable Spurle gifted the visitors their third try and earned a special award for himself in the clubhouse later.

The icing on the cake came when two of Bognor’s replacements combined, Jack Jones flying onto a perfect pass from player-coach Billy Toone. Toone later admitted to being almost three times the age of Jones but the old campaigner was still able to turn back the clock andshow the youngsters a few tricks in a welcome cameo.

Next week Bognor face a tough trip to second-placed Andover before a week off and then crucial games against New Milton (H) and Trojans (A).

Leighton Thomas