Sat 18 Mar 2023
Longlevens welcomed Cleve to Longford Lane in a re-arranged league game on a very wet and miserable afternoon. The conditions were definitely soft to heavy and any hopes of a wide and expansive game seemed out of the question.
The target, as has been for the last few weeks, was to get five points to keep the hope alive of a second placed finish, and after three minutes the Griffins were well on their way. A scrum on the right 30 yards out presented an attacking opportunity that they duly took. Number 8 Matt Fatica picked from the base and moved blind to link up with scrum half, Brad Wilkins. He drew the defender and put Matt Smith in some space, which he exploited with typical ease to finish well in the corner, 5-0.
With the rain now coming down hard, phases were becoming much shorter and both sides ebbed and flowed with knock ons galore. To their credit the Griffins were handling much better than the opposition and from set piece dominance they moved the ball right. Dummy runners made the defence jam in and the ball was moved out the back to Smith. He made yards down the right and from the resulting ruck Jed Holman-Jones cut a good line to continue his rich vein of form, 10-0.
As the conditions worsened mistakes began to creep in. From a defending scrum on their own line Levens attempted to pick from the base. A knock on fell into the hands of a grateful Cleve player who was able to flop over for a score against the run of place 10-7.
The set piece was going well for the home side and from an attacking scrum the ball was moved right to winger Mike Yorke. Yorkie, who was making his 200th appearance, beat his man to score a good try, this time converted by Wilkins, half time score 17-7.
Longlevens knew nothing but a bonus point win was enough so started the half applying pressure to Cleve and gaining the upper hand. Jack Cuthbert was the man to bring up the bonus point after some good build up play, 24-7. This was followed by some Cleve possession and they scored a last try of their own from a tap penalty, 24-14.
The game was killed off with 15 minutes to go after the returning Tom Griffiths exploited a broken defensive line to go through a gap to score, 31-14.
The last 15 minutes were a write off due to the conditions, with neither team able to tell who their team mates were and the ball being kept very tight, if held onto at all.
The whistle eventually blew and it was job done, the wait was now on to see if Midsomer Norton had done us a favour by taking points off of Burnham-on-Sea. Unfortunately, one of their players had selfishly decided to get married and invite the whole team to his wedding so Burnham won convincingly and secured the all-important promotion spot.
Next week the Griffins entertain Midsomer Norton looking to finish in third place and hope that two teams do end up getting promoted.
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