'Good run out' for Bourne's 1st XVs in Alan Lock Memorial game at Milking Nook Drove
The annual Alan Lock Memorial game was staged at Bourne where a strong first XV easily got the better of an invitational side.
But there were spells in the game where it could have been mistaken for a league encounter, due to the intense tempo from both sides.
Bourne opted to rest a number of key players, but they still fielded a strong side, while the Alan Lock squad had talent to show as well.
Led by club stalwart Matthew Cuffe, the Alan Lock XV made a strong start and looked as though they would open the scoring.
After a number of decent attacking opportunities, fly half Lew Myburgh found a gap in a weakened Bourne defence and looked certain to score. only to be brought down just metres short of the try line after a tackle by wing Matt Kidd.
Then shortly after the ten-minute mark, Bourne began to dominate as centre Josh Lynch collected a pass from fly half Jack Lagdon to score the first points of the day.
Scrum half Chris Warnes kicked the conversion to put Bourne 7-0 ahead and minutes later, Lynch threatened to score again before finding full back Jamie Colangelo who crossed for the second try, once again converted by Warnes.
The rest of the first half was well-contested by both sides, with the Alan Lock XV doing well to restrict their opponents to just the two scores.
Before the break, the Alan Lock side clawed back a try of their own as wing Stuart Hyde crashed over after running a clever angle at the side of a breakdown, taking the Bourne defence by surprise in the process.
However, Bourne regular Jack Berry, having offered his services to the opposition for the game, hit the post with his conversion attempt and Bourne went to the break 14-5 up.
With Bourne set to receive kick-off at the start of the second half, neither side seemed ready and the ball was allowed to bounce before anybody made an effort to gather it.
Bourne captain Tom Dixon, having come on at half time, was the first to react and got his hands on the ball before carrying it to within a couple of metres of the try line.
Dixon then threw a pass to back row counterpart Adam Binns who crossed with ease, leaving Warnes to add the conversion.
Bourne made a better job of dealing with the next restart and after a series of breakdowns, the ball was shipped wide to Lynch who took the ball into space before Colangelo gathered a fortunate bounce to cross over for his second try.
However, Warnes was unable to convert and Bourne were left leading 26-5.
The Bourne pack went on to dominate in the set pieces, with prop Chris Greenwood playing a leading role, supported by Jake Appleby and Paul Mambey.
With the Bourne pack setting the platform, the backs took advantage and some slick handling along the line saw winger Tom Turner find Colangelo with a pass which set up his hat-trick try.
This time, the conversion kick by Warnes was successful before Bourne fly half Lagdon put the ball into the hands of Kidd who had no trouble finding the try line which was converted.
Good work by Binns led to Bourne's next try because, having collected the ball just inside his own half, he managed to find a gap through a number of tired Alan Lock defenders before passing to Warnes who scored and then converted his own try.
Wing Aaron Harding then scored an unconverted try in the corner to take Bourne over the fifty points mark and, after an uncharacteristic mistake by Lynch (who had crossed over to play for the Alan Lock side), Colangelo picked up a loose bal and sprinted in with ease from seventy yards out to cap his second four-try haul in two games.
Warnes added the conversion to make the final score 59-5 to Bourne.
After the game, Alan Lock XV captain Cuffe said:"It was a great occasion and, as always, the lads put in a decent performance for what was a scratch side.
"The first team have gone from strength to strength over recent years, but there were times during the game when we had the measure of them".
Bourne XV captain for the day, front row Jake Appleby, said: "We played some good rugby in parts but at other times, we lacked a bit of simple structure.
"Games like this can often be quite scrappy, but the performance and the result aren't that important, except that it was a good run out for the lads.
"The day was all about remembering Bourne's past players, as well as celebrating where the club is now and where it's heading in the future."
Bourne XV: Paul Mambey, Jake Appleby, Chris Greenwood, Andrew Brown, Kyle Wallis, Gary Farrell, Charlie Short, Dan Smith, Chris Warnes, Jack Lagdon, Matt Kidd, JD Charlton, Josh Lynch, Tom Turner, Jamie Colangelo. Subs: Sam Evison, Sam Harby, Tom Dixon, Adam Binns, Simon Jakeman, Danny Day, Jack Berry.
