So it was to Bedfordshire for the Bees’ first away game of the season, but the game was anything but soporific. In an enthralling encounter, Birmingham & Solihull were a match in every department against an Ampthill side that had made an unbeaten start to the season.

Given their somewhat lacklustre start to their league campaign thus to date, the Bees were looking for a step up in performance – the fact that they were just 21-17 adrift with 10 minutes to play indicated that the side had risen to the challenge put down by their CoachingTeam.

A converted try for prop Nick Bingham got the visitors on the score sheet after 8 minutes, with the Bees scrum putting real pressure on the large Ampthill pack. The home side finally got into gear ten minutes later when flanker Jo Bercis crashed over the line following some good work at the line out by influential Tongan second row Paino Hehea.

A second Ampthill try followed just two minutes later, this time the lively Ampthill backs getting into the action with winger Daryl Dyer finishing off some crisp handling, although Bees’ winger Dai Evans would probably feel unlucky that the otherwise excellent referee Claire Hodnett had had a better view of the grounding. With Jo Tarrant adding the extras on both tries, Amptill had a 14-7 advantage, however an Adam Canning penalty trimmed their lead back to 14-10 on the half hour mark.

The last 10 minutes of the half saw the home side ramping up the pressure, but the Bees defence was up to the task, in particular deploying the choke tackle to great effect. An Adam Canning drop goal attempt – hit more in hope than expectation – ended a very entertaining half played in glorious autumnal sunshine.

The Bees began the second half as brightly as they had started the first, with Canning launching a number of aerial balls to test the Ampthill central defence. The home side maintained their poise and were rewarded when Hehea chalked up his second try of the afternoon from a well execeuted rolling maul six minutes into the second period. The dependable Tarrant made it 21-10.

Working on the basis of “anything you can do”, Bees captain Chris Goddard was the beneficiary of some good industry in the rolling maul in the 59th minute and with Canning slotting the conversion, it was still very much “game on” at 21-17.

However with fresh and equally bulky forward legs coming on from the bench for Ampthill, they took the game away from the Bees in the final ten minutes with two tries – a second for flanker Jo Bercis and one too for back row colleague Jo Sproston, the former converted by Tarrant, sealed the 33-17 win for the home side.

In his post match interview, Bees Director of Rugby Eugene Martin described the game as “one that got away.” He added, “We had got back into contention at 21-17 with 10 minutes to go, but some mistakes and a lack of clarity allowed them to score two tries and take the game away from us.”

“I was pleased with the level of commitment that guys put in – Ampthill are a good side with some big units and we certainly asked many more questions of them than other team had managed to do this season. In the end, however, we came up short and the players were bitterly disappointed, which as a Coach I take as a good sign.”

Bees entertain Sedgley Park at Portway this coming Saturday, 4th October KO 2pm.

Teams

Ampthill – Jonathan Morgan, Daryl Dyer, Brendan Burke, Jonathan Raven, Michael di’Ponio, Jo Tarrant, Kieran Duffin, Jo Sproston, Jo Bercis, Bradley Scharff, Richard Bussey, Paino Hehea, James Wright, TJ Harris and Lewis Brunger. Replacements – Matt Collins, Villami Ma’asi, Maama Molitika, Gareth Clarke and Gavin Williams.

Birmingham & Solihull – Chris Carlin , Alex O’Malley, Steve Johns, Rob Connolly, Dai Evans, Adam Canning (P,2C), Jack Jolly, Steve Leach, Michael Stephens, Ashley Scriven, Chris Goddard (T) ©, Matt Spink, Nick Bingham (T), Will Crane and Peter Koziot. Replacements (all used) Lewis Grinsell, Andy Kettle, Liam Dunne, Ian Briggs and Matt Dight

Referee – Claire Hognett