Bognor 15 - Ellingham and Ringwood 44

We travelled to Bognor on Saturday for our Hampshire Counties Division 1 Fixture against a team we'd never beaten, so we were keen to break that hoodoo. Both sides were promoted last season, with us as champions and Bognor as runners up, but Bognor had still beaten us both home and away.

We travelled with a strong squad on a bitterly cold day and started brightly. After some good interchanges between our forwards and backs, our scrum half and captain Sammy Veneroso pulled the strings. Our flank forward Ted Johnson then ran through a couple of tackles to score our first try of the game, which our full back Chris Frost converted.

Bognor fought back and put our defence under pressure. This resulted in us giving away a penalty which the Bognor fly half Bradley Caparo kicked to reduce the deficit. The remainder of the half was a hard fought contest. We didn't make live easy for ourselves, with our flank forward Tyler Grant being shown a yellow card, for the second week running, for a no arms tackle. Our number 8 Lewis Nicholls was then also shown a yellow card for a high tackle. With us down to 13 players, Bognor seized the opportunity to make the numbers count and scored a try in the 39th minute, but Caparo was unable to convert. With the clock running down to half time, our 13 players forced their way into Bognor's half and the home team conceded a penalty which Christ Frost was able to kick to give us an 8-10 lead at the break. Sadly, our second row Duncan Soden had sustained a broken collar bone, so Tom Sampson came on to take his place.

We started the second half strongly and our inside centre Ali Bennett set off on one of his mazy runs and scored our second try of the game, which Frost was unable to convert. Then, leading from the front, our captain and scrum half Sammy Veneroso snipped over for our third try of the game after some sterling work by our forward pack. This time Frost was able to kick the conversion. Bognor fought back and their inside centre Christopher Hay, who had a fine game, dived over for their second try of the game, with his team mate Caparo kicking the conversion to narrow the gap.

At this point, our coach Alan Steel made some changes, bringing on Tommy Veneroso to play outside his brother Sammy and new signing Chris Jeffes going to full back, with Frost moving to the wing. The pressure we were putting on the home team proved too much and they gave away a kickable penalty, which Frost kicked to extend their lead. With our pack dominating, our prop Adam Payne crashed over for a try. Ted Johnson then got his second try of the game, which Frost was able to convert. With the last play of the game, our debutant Jeffes ran a good line and dived over for his first try for the club which Frost converted to make the final Bognor 15 - Ellingham & Ringwood 44, which finally broke the hoodoo Bognor had held over us for many years.