By David Hibell
October 1 2003

This was a game of two halves and no mistake. The first couldn’t have been closer, Bristol started brightly with 3 points on the board from Duncan Hayward but this was soon cancelled out with a Simon Binns penalty almost straight from the restart as Bristol were penalised for collapsing a maul.

 

Early doors Bristol looked to have the measure of the Otley pack and drove the ball through the forwards before releasing the runners but handling errors let the side down with more than one move ending with a dropped ball.

 

Bristols second penalty award came after Sean Marsden had put Mike Griffiths into space on the right only for the winger to lose his footing, keeping possession the ball was moved infield to the left and Otley were penalised at the breakdown.  Hayward again made no mistake and looked to be kicking assuredly.

 

Otley had an enforced change when the number eight, Scott Connor, was temporarily replaced and the replacement player (Ed Thorne?) was sin binned, Hayward didn’t connect so well with his third penalty attempt and the chance went begging.

 

Bristol started to open up now with the man advantage but Otley were happy to soak up the pressure and came close to scoring when a clearance from the Bristol 22 was charged down, but the referee took play back to an offence at the original line out.  Despite being a man down Otley were next to score with a well taken try on the right wing for Will Darby after an intelligent chip through from Simon Binns, although there was an element of fortune with James Bailey being fooled by the bounce.

 

Scott Connor came back on after the sin binning with his side in front for the first time 6-8.  Bristol were adjudged to have encroached too quickly at a ruck shortly after and although the ball appeared to be out Otley were awarded the penalty, Binns slotted it through and Otley were 6-11 up.

 

Bristol then came back strongly and appeared certain to score when John Hawker burst through after a good attack but was adjudged to have knocked on after a tackle that had its legality questioned by many of the crowd around me.

 

They were to score shortly after though with Sean Marsden bamboozling 2 Otley defenders with some clever footwork to break down the left wing, the ball was moved right & Matt Styles showing strength and pace to score on the right wing.  The conversion attempt sailed very close to the posts and was adjudged to have missed, although the reaction of the crowd in the West Stand suggested they believed the attempt to be good.  That was the final score of the half and Bristol went in 11-11.

 

Unfortunately they were not to score again, Otley succeeded with a penalty in the first minute of the second half and didn’t look back from there running in three second half tries through Simon Binns, Will Darby again and Ian Shuttleworth.  Simon Binns’ try came from a period of extended pressure in the Bristol 22 seeming to last for hours, with Bristol having 14 players for much of this time.

 

Dodge came on with 56 minutes gone and came closest to scoring with a quick tap from a penalty five yards out, he was tackled short but the tackler didn’t roll away and Dodge was able to scamper towards the line but was adjudged to have made a double movement and the try was disallowed.  Bristol twice went for lineouts when penalties were awarded and each time Otley were able to clear their lines. 

 

Overall it was an improved performance and the side can take confidence from the first forty minutes where Bristol started very strongly.  Next up is the visit of the Manchester in the cup, the other team with Penzance & Newlyn to be promoted last season.