Saturday’s 1 point loss at Sutton Benger did gain the team a losing bonus point but it was not what Minety wanted from the game. 40 players have now donned the 1st XV shirt this season in league matches, enough for nearly three whole teams, and yet the team faces teams who have used significantly less over the course of two seasons. With so many players being forced to play out of position simply to cover the rosta, perhaps a one point result was more than could have been expected.
Setting aside the disappointments of Saturday, elsewhere in the Dorset and Wilts Division 1, the two top teams, neither of which are from either Dorset or Wilts, clashed at Avonvale with Combe Down emerging narrow victors and extending their winning run. 14 wins from 14 games, 11 of them with bonus points for scoring four or more tries. It’s impressive and should see them promoted at the end of the season.
Third placed Melksham kept up their run of wins with a victory over 6th placed Trowbridge while 4th placed Warminster saw off bottom placed Supermarine to keep them in touch with the top. Bassett’s hammering of Pewsey has put their “for and against” points record into the positive and above Minety in the table.
Of mathematical interest is that Trowbridge, who Minety face on Saturday, have an identical record to Minety, except their “points for / against” is 114 points worse than Minety’s, and yet they are one league point ahead. Not sure how that works. Perhaps someone can enlighten me!
In Division 3 Steve Wilson took his team to Melksham where, according to reports, they put a much better show than perhaps the result suggests. The loss keeps them in 7th place in the league while Melksham move into the “+” for the first time since the start of the season.
Two more walkover matches, 40% of the fixtures in the league on Saturday, suggest that all is not right in Division 3 and surely the league must be considering how it can be made more attractive.
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