With manager supreme Danny ‘Tinkerman’ Rowan keen to maintain momentum for his Broadstreet 3rd XV troops over the Easter weekend in the build up to the end-of-season opportunity to clinch a league and cup double, he accepted this ‘friendly’ fixture away to Alcester 1st XV, themselves flying high in lofty Midlands 5 West (South) and unbeaten in calendar year 2015.
The men from Ivor Preece Field arrived in their usual good spirit at the Birmingham Road based facility to be greeted by a large partisan home crowd, although ‘Street themselves were offered plentiful support in the shape of many travelling club stalwarts, including Tom ‘Mister Current Chairman’ Faulkner, Richard ‘Mister Former Chairman’ Skene, Simon ‘Saddle Sore’ Buttriss, John Dodd, Kevin ‘Father of Short-Stride’ Tyrrell, Garry ‘Mister Former Chairman’ Watts and Ricky ‘Crackers’ Watts, all no doubt, keen to escape their grandchildren’s Easter Egg hunts and the latter two probably looking to pick up some much needed tips ahead of their greatly anticipated playing comebacks on the club tour to Perpignan next month.
As usual ‘Street fielded a side with a blend of youth (most of them) and experience (John ‘Brownie’ Brown and skipper again Pete ‘Evergreen’ Branston) and were far from overawed at the prospect of facing a full first team fully intent on maintaining their winning streak. Indeed, from the kick-off, with the men from Rugby Road playing up the slope, it was the ’Street forwards who dominated play, shoving the home side’s scrum backwards at a faster rate of knots than the Duke of Wellington repelled Napoleon’s troops at the battle of Waterloo, dominating the line-outs and controlling possession. It was inevitable that a score would follow, and sure enough it came to ‘Brownie’ who collected the ball from a metre out and stumbled over the line for a five pointer, later claiming, somewhat deluded, that he had sprinted (ha ha!) twenty metres, beat three defenders and shook off multiple tackles for his score, perhaps mistaking himself for one of the young guns playing. Nevertheless they all count and, with the extras added, ‘Street stormed in to a deserved 7-0 lead.
From the restart it was still all Broadstreet but a few handling errors were creeping in to the game and Alcester capitalised on a ‘Street knock-on with their centre picking up the ball and sprinting 60 metres to score under the posts, the conversion surprisingly being missed but nonetheless bringing the score back to 7-5 in favour of the away side and providing the Midlands 5 West (South) team more than a glimmer of hope that they could get back in to the match. Putting this setback behind them, the visitors kicked off deep in to the hosts’ twenty-two and put immediate pressure on the Alcester defence. It wasn’t too long before ‘Street crossed the home team’s whitewash again, although there was collective dismay amongst the ranks that it was ‘Brownie’ who once again was the man credited with the touchdown, shouts of “goal hanger” emanating from the touchline. With the conversion missed, the scoreboard read Alcester 5 Broadstreet 12. ‘Street were determined not to sit on their lead and played with increasing intensity as the clock ran down on the first half, looking for the all-important score that would take them two scores ahead of their hosts. Unfortunately, on the stroke of half-time, spirit and adventure got the better of them and a long floated pass from Callum Abbott was intercepted by the home side’s winger who sprinted a full 80 metres to score under the posts. With the extras added this time, and the whistle sounding for half-time, the match was all square, somewhat fortuitously for the home side given the dominance that ‘Street had demonstrated. Half-Time: Alcester 1st XV 12, Broadstreet 3rd XV 12.
As has been the case on previous occasions this season, ‘Street were unable to maintain their momentum early in the second-half and a series of sloppy play and handling errors led to the Alcester centre scooping up a ball and scoring out wide to give the home side the lead for the first time at 17 – 12. This seemed to galvanise the men from Rugby Road in to action and from the restart they kept the Alcester in their own twenty-two, using their superiority in the set pieces to good effect until Marc Brittain was able to break through the hosts’ defence and bring the match level again at 17 -17. There followed a period of intense pressure from the home side, who were clearly intent on not losing their unbeaten in 2015 tag, and with ‘Street pegged back in their own twenty-two and the home side’s backs running strongly, it was quite possible that they would achieve their goal. However, a noteworthy feature of the Broadstreet this season has been that they never give up, and with a few minutes remaining on the clock, a feed by Marc Brittain led to a touchdown under the posts that Brownie greeted as if he’d scored a hat trick.
The match reached its conclusion, with ‘Street deservedly hanging on for a hard-earned victory and heading to the bar where they were greeted with jugs of Guinness provided by their appreciative followers. Full-Time: Alcester 1st XV 17, Broadstreet 3rd XV 24.
Squad: 15 Lee Lightowler; 14 Adam Tyrrell, 13 Paddy Hughes, 12 Darroll Watts, 11 Marc Brittain; 10 Callum Abbott, 9 Mitchell Hancox; 1 Robbie Brown, 2 John Brown, 3 James Downes; 4 Will Vennard, 5 Brendan McGuire; 6 Jack Simpson, 7 Danny Havart, 8 Pete Branston (c). 16 Jamie McDonnell, 17 Tom Ainsley, 18 Ben Gosling.
Management Team: Danny ‘Tinkerman’ Rowan, Richard ‘MFC’ Skene, Dave ‘Who’s nicked our feckin’ balls’ Paddy.
Man-of-the-Match: John ‘Brownie’ Brown.
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