Drybrook 113pts
Bideford 7pts
When I was young lad many moons ago, Mr. Bill Ward taught us a song which we used to sing on a Saturday night after a few beers. The song was entitled “I Belong to Drybrook“ and after the performance put on by the eighteen players on the pitch today never was there a prouder time to be reminded of this song title.
Bideford arrived at the Mannings fifth in the league and with wins over Thornbury and Bridgwater there was no reason to believe this would be anything other than another hard fought afternoon.
How wrong can you be!
From the first whistle Drybrook were on the attack and the first twenty minutes went by in a blur as Drybrook posted 31 points with tries from Peaper, Stevenson, Large and Mitch Baldwin.
With the try bonus point already in the bag Drybrook continued to bamboozle the opposition with miss moves, dummy runners and off loads to take the score past the half century mark by the time the ref had blown for the break.
Chairs had to be brought out for Oscar Rawlings and Taffy Howells and their beer delivered from the bar as the first half had completely taken their breath away.
The second half began and by the time the third quarter was reached Drybrook were seventy three points to nil in the lead. Tries were being scored at random with Beatie, Large and Bourne all crossing the whitewash and Treherne who once again was on fire with the boot, converting all of the scores.
Then the unthinkable happened, Bideford scored a try!
Their number thirteen eventually got to touch the ball and to his and his team’s credit, crossed the line to at least record a score for the visitors which their outside half duly converted.
Thankfully this was only a blip and not the start of a heroic comeback, and with ten minutes left of the game Drybrook had equalled their previous best score of ninety four with tries coming from Treherne, Tingle and a hat trick try from their captain Ben Large, which unfortunately his Mum and Dad missed as they were away yet again on another holiday.
The crowd were on tenter hooks as it took another six minutes before Beatie smashed his way over to score and it was left to Treherne to add the extra two points that took Drybrook past the century mark for the first time in their one hundred and twenty five year history.
There was still time left in the game for Drybrook to score two more tries past a shell shocked Bideford, who must have wondered what had happened to them in the eighty minutes that had just passed.
Beatie completed a fine hat trick, Gardner got over in the corner, much to the annoyance of Treherne who saw his conversion just miss the left hand upright, the first kick he had missed in a previous twenty six shots at goal. A club record of one hundred and thirteen points had been recorded.
This was an exceptional display of rugby from a young group of players who are capable of taking Drybrook all the way in this league.
They will now have to carry the expectation of success and should revel in the challenge this puts before them.
Next week we are on the road to Bridgwater, a ground where we have not always had the rub of the green.
Onwards and upwards. Drive on Dry!
Drybrook 1st XV: T.Treherne, H.Howard, D.Price, B.Large, (capt), M.Baldwin, T.Stevenson, B.George, L.Boon, A.Howells, M.Hale, L.Mullane, W.Greenway, S.Peaper, J.Tingle, M.Bourne,
Replacements: E.Beatie, C.Guest, R.Gardner.
