Bracknell stay at the top of the table after they finished strongly to take the points away at Grove.
There are many who follow Bracknell on a regular basis who are worried that their team are slow starters – and not completely without reason.
This week however, Bracknell would once again remind their supporters where the slow starters tag came from, but finished brilliantly.
Facing a stiff breeze in the first half Bracknell forced a scrum from the kick off but were then rudely stuffed in the scrummage and conceded a penalty and considerable ground as a result.
Other than one brief Bracknell excursion into their half, Grove spent the next 20 minutes in Bracknell territory making us all wonder why they were bottom of the league.
This culminated with a score for Grove’s 12 who cut a good line back towards the forwards, broke a tackle and touched down behind the posts. He converted his own try and Grove were seven points to the good.
The next item of note in the game was not so good for the home side – overzealous use of the foot at the back of a ruck and the Grove scrum half was red carded for stamping.
This would lead to the first Bracknell score after a full 24 minutes.
A good miss move in the Bracknell backs saw Danny Bournes make good ground and feed Ian Burch who was stopped just short of the line.
From the scrum that followed a poor pass from Grove’s replacement nine led to a Bracknell scrum five metres out.
Ken Hodgson picked up from eight and made ground, allowing Tom Scott to force over from the next phase. Sam Dunks, kicking for the first time this season converted to level the game.
After 30 minutes Ken Hodgson stole the ball in his own 22, Tom Scott ran straight, then the ball was spun wide left from the next ruck, Bart Van Herwijnen drew the last man and Ian Burch ran round behind posts.
Sam Dunks then converted to make it 14-7 to Bracknell.
Bracknell spent more time defending as the half wore on and finding it difficult to get out of their half they conceded a penalty in the dying seconds of the first 40.
Grove’s 12 took the half time score to 10 – 14 with the last kick of the half – but unbeknown to them it would be their last score of the game.
Three minutes after the restart Grove suffered a yellow card, Bracknell kicked to the corner, executed a successful catch and drive and a score by Ken Hodgson was converted by Sam Dunks to make it 10-21.
Bracknell’s bonus point score came after 54 minutes when a tap penalty made its way down the line to see Ruairi Henderson touch down in the corner – again brilliantly converted by Sam Dunks from the touchline – admittedly with a tail wind.
The writing was on the wall for the home side who seized to opportunity to overreact to a high tackle from Sam Dunks and after the ensuing melee both Sam and Ken Hodgson took a yellow card breather for 10 and it was Bracknell this time who were reduced to 13 men
Back to full strength and with a tiring opposition Bracknell continued to benefit from their trademark expansive game and on 78 minutes a quick tap penalty was spun wide to see Ian Burch get his second and then two minutes later a great line of running by Danny Bournes saw him touch down for Bracknell’s sixth try.
Sam Dunk’s boots had used up the last of their magic converting Bracknell’s fourth try from the touchline and missed the final two conversion attempts.
By Peter Mably
