BRIDPORT 17

CREWKERNE 31

BRIDPORT opened their season with a friendly defeat at home against Crewkerne playing for the Brown Bowler in their annual friendly.

The fixture was inaugurated in 1985 following the death of Tony Bowditch who lived in South Street.

He had a number of nephews who were playing for both Bridport and Crewkerne and in his will he bequeathed his Brown Bowler to be played for annually between the two teams.

This fixture has been played most years since and recently just by chance Dave Singleton one of the nephews met Tony’s daughter Katie Gatehouse who did not know about the Bowler and was here to present it to the winning Crewkerne captain.

After the first 25 minutes, it seemed as though it would be the Blues winning the Bowler as they raced into a 14-point lead playing some lovely attacking rugby.

Following early Crewkerne pressure from the kick-off they conceded a penalty, Mitch Waters took a quick tap and broke through the defence, Nathan Herbert supported and offloaded to Guy Brazier to score in the corner and Waters then converted for Bridport.

Following a scrum back from the kick-off, Bridport got quick ball from the scrum and Waters again broke clear, Herbert supported and this time off loaded for Dave Cutting to score, with Rich Layzell converting to make it 14-0.

The Blues continued to press and, after a powerful scrum on the Crewkerne line, they were unlucky not to score.

The breaks continued but were spoilt by loose handling and with the Blues’ line-out and scrum not functioning as Crewkerne got back into the game and shortly before half-time a period of sustained pressure in the home 22 resulted in a pushover try from a scrum which was not converted for Crewkerne.

Dean Williams in the Blues’ front row was taken off injured at half-time and, with no suitable front row replacement the second half started with uncontested scrums.

In trying to clear his line a poor kick from Waters was quickly gathered allowing Crewkerne to break through and score a converted try to make it 14-12.

From the kick-off, the Blues gained a penalty which Waters converted to take the score to 17-12.

However, shortly after the kick-off, another Blues’ kick was charged down and Crewkerne were able to kick through and score an unconverted try to level the scores.

With Crewkerne now dominating the line-outs the Blues were not able to gain any possession and despite a couple of close attempts they allowed Crewkerne to score twice in the last 10 minutes going down by 31-17.

The Blues’ first league game is away to Swanage on Saturday in 6x Dorset & Wilts One South.