Park get a Nottingham lacing!

THE sun shone brightly on an emerald pitch which had been cut like a bowling green.

The balcony flowers were as impressive as jewels, but what about the mighty match? Pretty drab at best, and sadly did not live up to the setting.

Nottingham confounded the pundits, myself included, by stealing a very close fought defensive encounter. The theft of the two points was aided and abetted by the home side who had enough chances to win by 25 points.

Nottingham started at a blistering pace and with all the possession for most of the first 30 minutes, but Sedgley's defence stood firm with all the side tackling like demons. Mike Wilcock and Jon Scales in particular saving likely tries.

In the first half, Sedgley faced the wind and played against the slope so that at half-time when the score was 6-6 from two penalties to each full-back -- Glynn for Sedgley, Southam for the visitors -- Sedgley, with the elements behind them, could look forward to success.

However, the wind roared and when Sedgley had possession, Nottingham proved to be as good as them in defence. Half way through the second period, a slow pass was intercepted by Southam who ran 70 metres for a try, which he converted, to put Nottingham ahead.

Sedgley then lost Richard Senior with a damaged ankle, but gained the upper hand, attacking continuously and eventually the pressure led to a try. From a line-out close to their opponents' line on the right wing, a Sedgley maul drove over and Tim Fourie scored.

More attacks from Sedgley were all snuffed out by a Nottingham side who never looked like scoring. A 53-metre penalty attempt by Chris Glynn just fell short and that was that!

What went wrong? Well, two tries in each half went begging with the last pass knock-on, and Glynn crossed the line in the second half, but the final pass was forward.

The line-outs were won by the visitors, who took seven Sedgley throws and Sedgley knocked on 12 times. Another 19 turnovers for penalties and free-kicks kept Sedgley on the back foot.

A sad story, but an unusual blip in the Sedgley story which, I am sure, will be rectified. Saturday, away at Henley-on-Thames, kick-off 3pm, will be a different place and time to return to winning ways. Comfort must be taken from the fact that Sedgley Park are unlikely to repeat the below-par performance of last Saturday.

SEDGLEY PARK: C. Glynn, M. Wilcock, C. Hassan, J. Scales, J. Naylor, R. Moon, D. McCormack, K. Rouffof, L. Treco, H. Thomas, P. Arnold, W. Stockdale, R. Senior, K. Yates, T. Fourie. Subs: M. Alcock, P. Kayes, I. Grainey, R. Bullough.