Keyworth 2s Spoil the Party with a 48 - 17 win

In a double-header of a Pennant fixture, it was Keyworth who came away with the bonus point win, outscoring the home team by 8 tries to 3. Both sides had full squads, a rarity this season and Keyworth’s captain was pressed into the refereeing duties. Not an easy task by any means with both sets of forwards trying to gain ascendancy at the scrum and failing to stay on their feet at the breakdown, resulting in a stop-start game in the first half.
Surprisingly, in the breaks between the scrums and penalties, there was plenty of good rugby played by both teams who showed a willingness to move the ball wide at almost every opportunity. However, it was Keyworth’s superior scrummage that gave them the early points with No 8 Lee Broadhead touching down twice from 5m scrums in the first 25 minutes. These were interspersed with a well worked try from Nottinghamians when their 2nd row crashed over on 18 minutes.
Keyworth had the bonus point in the bag by half-time as further tries were added by the elusive Jason Holland, the youthful Adam Waldron, who continues to impress and happy hooker James Maddock who crossed for his second of the season. With one of these converted by Jamie Birch, the score was 27 – 5 at the half.
The use of rolling subs by both teams was useful in ensuring everyone present got a reasonable amount of game time and that any knocks or injuries were not compounded by players continuing to play on. After the break, the teams reverted to testing each other out, but a yellow card issued to the Keyworth prop, Adam Budgen after a fracas, seemed to settle the game down. 10 minutes into the half, Keyworth extended their lead when Ben Ransome, from a lineout on the Nottinghamians 22 broke through the massed ranks to hare away and score. The conversion was added by Jamie Birch.
It was Ransome who added Keyworth’s next score, when he supported Lee Broadhead who had broken from a scrum in the home side’s 22 and offloaded to the ubiquitous Ben. An easy 2 pointer from Birch was added. One further try came from the vistors through Jamie Halpin, who popped up in a variety of positions during the afternoon, chasing his own long kick ahead he fought off the attentions of the defence to gather and score under the posts. Birch once again doing the honours.
Testament to the spirit of Nottinghamians, they never gave up and continued to attack whenever they had possession. Their reward came in the form of two late tries as they added 12 points to give the scoreboard an air of respectability and a clear reference to their competitive attitude.
Worthy of note, was the tackling of Aaron Browning, who even with a damaged hand, put in some crunching hits. Alex Tsang also tackled well but with not quite the same ferocity. Tom Holmes showed some deft touches in midfield and Dave Shields belied his years with another tenacious performance. Adam Sheen and Wayne Jowett set the foundation in the front row and both also showed up well in the loose. Keith Scott worked hard, as did young tyro Ashley Waldron with Liam Harrison having a number of promising runs.
John Scott, skippering the side extremely well, did however spend more time off his feet than on them, killing more balls than the eunuch-makers of ancient Eygpt. It was a great team performance which augurs well for the rest of the season.