Cinderford were narrowly beaten at Silver Leys the home of Bishop’s Stortford in a match that very much was dictated by the elements.
The visitors can justifiably feel a little aggrieved to have lost out, but their inability to build a strong enough lead in the first-half cost them dearly. Mike Austin landed an early penalty, but several promising attacking situations failed to bring another score before Austin was again on hand to score a try to make it 8-0 after 25 minutes of play. The match took a decisive turn in the home team’s favour just before the interval when they were inexplicably awarded the put in to scrum 5m out and full-back Charlie Parkhouse cut through to score a try, which Connor Lloyd converted.
With the conditions now in their favour Stortford were soon pressing forward in the second half and they took the lead when James Ayrton scored an unconverted try. A second try from Ayrton on the hour appeared to have put the home team into a comfortable lead, but Cinderford upped their game in the closing quarter and scored two well taken tries, both through full-back Reece Dunn, but the conversion attempts were blown off target and the visitors ended up just short.