Bees pile another ton of misery on Old Halesonians

The Birmingham & Solihull Bees brushed aside a gallant but ultimately ineffective Old Halesonians side at Wassell Grove, scoring 16 tries in a 0-100 local derby drubbing.

With the Bees coming into the game unbeaten and Old Halesonians losing all ten of their league games to date, the eventual outcome of the game was perhaps no great surprise. Old Hales didn’t help themselves by having a man red carded on the 12-minute mark, when winger Steve Jordan took Ashley Scriven out in the air at a restart. Doubtless no malice aforethought, but the straight red was fully justified.

The Bees had already put themselves 0-12 up at that stage, with tries from Tawanda “Chip” Chipadza and Zane Raimondi. And although they added another three tries – a second for the Bees’ hooker and one each for Danny Wright and Nathan Tilsey – complemented by a total of three conversions from the boot of Jolly by half time, the league leaders had failed to find the level of precision or clinical finishing that they had shown previously against sterner opposition.

Some well chosen words at half time and an emptying of the bench – Jack Secher on for Jolly, Matt Probert for Kurtis Payne and Reece Donaldson for Ashley Scriven – saw the men from Portway shift up the gears and add a further eleven second-half tries – six of them in a sublime 16 minute spell – to underline the gulf in class between the two sides.

Raimondi got his hat trick, Chip further added to his first half tally, with scores also from Mike Stephens, two from Max Rodman and Matt Spink respectively, Jack Secher, JT Nabetelevu, Steve Johns and, right at the death, Kurtis Payne. Rodman, having taken over the kicking duties from the subsititued Jolly, slotted seven second half conversions.

To their great credit, 14-man Old Halesonians never threw in the towel, but they were unable to retain the ball or put the Bees defence under any real threat all afternoon. Shipping over 300 points in three games without getting on the scoresheet themselves, must be a better pill to swallow and, as autumn comes to an end, the mid-winter could prove to be very bleak indeed for Matt Williams’ young side.

The Bees were clearly delighted to reach the 100-point mark with the final kick of the game, showing the sort of ruthlessness that was perhaps lacking in the first half.

With this game done and dusted, they can now turn their attention to two big fixtures in the coming fortnight, in the shape of fourth placed Peterborough Lions at home at Portway next Saturday (2nd December, KO 2.15pm, followed by third placed Sandbach up in Cheshire on the 9thDecember.

These two sides locked horns this weekend – Sandbach getting the better of their hosts in a tight 17-19 game. With the Lions only picking up a losing bonus point, the Bees extended their lead at the top of the table – 11 points clear of Newport (Salop) in second spot.

Birmingham & Solihull Bees:- 1. Joe Foreman, 2. Zane Raimondi (3T), 3. Kurtis Payne (T), 4. Andy Weaver, 5. Matt Spink (2T), 6 Ashley Scriven, 7. Michael Stephens (T), 8. Danny Wright (T), 9. Jack Jolly (3C) ©, 10. Max Rodman (2T,7C), 11. Tawanda Chipadza (2T), 12. Nathan Tilsley (T), 13. Steve Johns (T), 14. Sonny Young, 15. JT Nabetelevu (T), 16. Matt Probert, 17. Reece Donaldson & 18. Jack Secher (T).

Referee: Adam Carpenter