Skegness 1st XV 13-12 Spalding Development XV

     Skegness continued their winning end to the season with a dramatic game at Spalding. The elements played a large part in the match, as did the personnel. The usual weekly changes affected the shape of the team. Captain Machin called upon some youngsters from the second team to make up the numbers to fifteen.
Skegness started well holding the Spalding scrum and turning over possession. The front row of Cummings, Bradberry and Delafontaine earned their second start after last weeks performance. All three held their opposite numbers and caused problems. With Skegness playing against the wind any kicks to touch did not travel far. Line out supremos of Johnson and Hill battled all day to catch a swirling ball.
Skegness made an error deep in their twenty-two meter area and paid the price. A blind side move exploited defensive frailties and capitalised by coring a try under the posts. Spalding took a seven-point lead, a lead they did not deserve.
The blue and whites responded well by running at the opposition. They made a considerable gain in territory and could have scored a try with a three-man overlap. Holliday would surely of scored but a strong defensive tackle forced the off-load back inside.
Haigh tackled hard in the centres and bruised his opposite number and fly half a number of times. His running also created space out wide and Downes, playing in the first team for the first time used his speed on the wing.
The half time whistle blew and the elements now forced the home team. Jackson commanded that the ball should be kicked into the corners and use the wind to pin back Spalding and play in their half of the pitch.
Divilly playing at fly half gave his team the tactical advantage by keeping Spalding deep in their half. Connolly kept sniping at the scrum by using his guile and speed. Bignell and captain Machin were always in support. One such scrum created a driving maul. Captain Machin led from the front and scored a deserved try. Hotchin could not convert from out wide and the scored remained at 5-7.
Skegness continued to make inroads into the Spalding defences. A promising move was nullified by an error at a ruck. A player driving into a ruck accidentally kicked the ball forward. As Spalding recovered the ball it was moved out wide to the speedy centre. He outpaced the defence and bumped off the last tackler. The conversion was attempted with a droop goal. The kicker missed in front of the posts, which proved to be very expensive. The score remained 5-12.
A Spalding player kicked a loose ball. Divilly recovered the ball and accelerated through a hole in the defence. He found his supporting flanker Bignell, who passed to Haigh and Haigh’s final pass, gave Kime the opportunity to score. The outside centre opened up his engine and raced to the try line. Hotchin just missed the conversion to keep the score 10-12.
Skegness had other chances to win the game but small errors prevented this. With the clock ticking away a penalty was awarded to Skegness about thirty meters from the try line. Calls to quick tap and go were ignored and Machin asked Hotchin to kick for posts. Hotchin stepped up and slotted the three points to give Skegness the win with the final kick. Skegness celebrated and Hotchin later confessed that he did not realise that his kick would win the game for his team.

Skegness 1st XV
Cummings, Bradberry, Delafontaine, Hill, Jackson, Johnson, Bignell, Machin,
Connolly, Divilly, Holliday, Haigh, Kime, Downes, Hotchin.