PUDDLETOWN 20

DORCHESTER 32

IN A GREAT weekend for the county town club, Dorchester bagged four impressive results.

Up first, Dorchester’s unbeaten first team beat Puddletown 32-20 in Wadworth Dorset & Wilts One South.

In an error strewn first-half performance at Greenfields, Dorchester looked anything like league leaders but a dominant second-half performance secured the bonus-point win.

Puddletown made the perfect start as Dorchester failed to deal with the kick-off and conceded a penalty in front of the posts allowing Puddletown to open the scoring.

Minutes later Puddletown extended the lead, as an interception on their own 22 saw the centre outpacing the defence to the Dorchester try line. The successful conversion put Puddletown 10-0 up.

Worse was to follow for the visitors, as leading try scorer James Baker left the pitch with a calf injury.

Dorchester were dominating field position but the home defence, along with some poor decisions in attack, were holding firm.

The visitors did eventually get on the scoreboard with a George Foot penalty which seemed to settle Dorchester slightly.

Charlie Sharpe and Andy Dowell both then crossed for unconverted tries but another mistake from Dorchester allowed Puddletown to kick an equalising penalty for 13-13.

One final effort from Dorchester saw centre Callum King force his way over the line despite the attentions of several defenders. Again the conversion was missed but Dorchester went into the break with a slender five-point lead.

Playing down the slope in the second half Puddletown must have fancied their chances of pulling off an upset but Dorchester tightened up and did not give their opponents any chance. Puddletown were forced to defend for long periods and to their credit they only conceded two further tries.

Callum King and skipper James Newsam scored five-pointers, both converted by King.

Puddletown’s ever vociferous crowd did have something to shout about when, in the last play of the game, the Villagers’ fly-half hoisted a speculative cross-kick which was plucked out of the air by the impressive full-back who then rounded the Dorchester full-back to score a consolation try.

At Surcouf Park, Dorchester’s Gladiators took to the field against an under-strength Poole Seconds who travelled with great support.

To ensure a fair and even contest in this friendly, Poole finished the game with four loanees from the home side.

Entering the final 10 minutes of the game it was evenly poised at 17-17 when Dorchester’s co-captain for the day, Jamie Jackson, dived for the line unopposed from a ruck for a certain try, but somehow contrived to knock-on instead.

Instead it was left to two of the side’s younger members, Barney Jones and Charlie Davis, to score two more tries and gain the winning margin for a final score of 27-17 which reflected a very close and competitive game.

Elsewhere, the Ridgeway Roses took a hard fought and well earned 15-15 draw against Swanage & Wareham ladies, whilst the successful Colts XV came away with a 21-7 win against Winchester.

The future of the club looks to be in good hands as the Colts have also now won their league taking six wins from eight games.

They now go into regional play-offs for more silverware.

Dorchester: Underhill, Ovey, Elliott, Harries, Burch, Hosford, Sharpe, Newsam; Dowell, Foot; Gower, C King, Baker, Boyd-Paton; Morgan. Evans, L King, Clark.

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