Bexley Produce Dominant Display for 70 Minutes

By Greg Wilkinson

Nearly got lost in Dartford the last 10!

On a warm, but cloudy day, Bexley welcomed local rivals Dartford Valley to the wide, expansive reaches of… Dartford.

The game started off well for Bexley, with the forwards quickly gaining a penalty which Nearly Perfect Josh promptly converted. Valley struck straight back though, with a penalty of their own and the game seemed to be settling into the midfield battle that has usually characterised matches between these teams in the last few seasons. However, this was not to be, as a moment of magic from Bryce changed the game. A delicate sidestep cut through Valley’s defensive line and a simple pass to AJ put him through to score the first try of the game, which Josh again converted. Dartford Valley came back strongly, pushing Bex back and missing a penalty, forcing the home team back to their own touchline and looking certain to score. A two man overlap on the wing was seen and a pass thrown, only for Josh to intercept at full stretch, racing away down the pitch like a Prop to a two-for-one meal deal. He scored and converted to make it 17-3 after twenty four minutes.

Bexley were in the ascendency now, constantly on the attack, whilst Valley looked momentarily shell-shocked by that last try. On thirty minutes, another great side-step by Bryce took him through the defensive line and again allowed him to offload to AJ, who again ran through to score in the corner. Sadly, such was the speed of AJ’s attack, the referee was miles behind and by the time he had caught up, a cunning Valley player had wormed a hand under the ball and the try was disallowed! In other words, blatant, disgraceful and vicious try avoidance from AJ which duly requires punishment. Bexley had another chance to increase their lead soon after, but Josh, showing why he is only nearly perfect, narrowly missed. He redeemed himself only a couple of minutes later though, taking a quick penalty (so quick in fact he nearly dropped it), throwing an obvious dummy straight out of the Angry Jim Peerless playbook and running through to register another try, which he converted. With half-time imminent, Bexley nearly extended their lead further, only for the recently named ‘Calamity’ AJ, to spill the ball from a Hayden pass. A late break from Dartford was held up on the line by Bexley, leaving the score at 24-3 at half-time.

Bexley came raring out of the blocks after half-time, pushing Valley deep into their 22. Darren ‘scholar’ Jalink somehow managed to sidestep past a centre with cat-like grace, (also described as the “sidestep of an elephant”, by Charlie!) to set up an attack, only for Bex to be let-down by some poor handling by Fondlehore. However, the Doctor was quick to make amends, taking a quick penalty to score from an uncharacteristically long distance (5 metres) on forty-nine minutes. Josh converted, 31-3 to Bexley.

Almost straight after the restart, John Not So Light, sprinted through on the wing and passed inside to Martin, only for him to stumble, face-first into the ground. He later suggested it was down to the fact the John had actually made a pass that wasn’t forward and that hadn’t been dropped previously that made him fall over in shock! Valley were beginning to look shaky in defence and they weren’t helped by a yellow card being given against them on the fifty-fifth minute for handling in the ruck, that caused former Italian Rugby League International Sam Heard to be held up. Down to 14 men, Valley were powerless to stop Twinkle toes Dave dancing through the defence and dropping the ball over the tryline. Literally, dropping the ball! It was still given and Josh converted to make it 38-3.

To their credit, Dartford Valley came back strongly after this, continuously putting Bexley under pressure and battling for every ball. They slowly started to push Bexley back in midfield as the home team began to take their foot slightly off the pedal and relax prematurely. Still, it was Bexley who had the next good opportunity to score in the match, with a good break by Fondlehore, Sam and Darren resulting in a penalty from 5 metres on seventy minutes. Then it all went wrong. Ignoring the massive overlap as Valley struggled to get set-up in defence; Joe wasted a clear scoring opportunity by trying to grab his second try via running straight into the opposition forwards. With the backs, some forwards, Sam and the entire group of Bexley supporters screaming for the ball to be passed out to what was now a 7 man overlap, Joe got taken down before the line, and Robin ‘Glass Jaw’ Jessop was held up. Shortly after that, Nearly Perfect Josh, demonstrating again why he is not perfect, decided to go for an ambitious drop goal from 25 metres, which tragically, only succeeded in cutting the heads of daisies on the ground. That is until, it reached a Valley player who ran straight through a huge gap in a stunned Bexley defence to score and convert. A couple of minutes later in the seventy-ninth minute, Valley broke down the wing and scored again, with not tracking back and laziness being the culprits for Bexley here. The Dartford fly half missed a simple conversion to leave the final score at 38-15.

A bad last ten minutes should not detract from a generally excellent performance however, and the Bexley players should be proud of a good win against a very spirited Dartford Valley side that never stopped running. Third in the League!