A blustery afternoon saw Oldfield travel away to Avon.

Avon started brightly and capitalised on Oldfield’s inability to control possession. The Oldfield back row of Mark, Ade & Rich Gobey battled hard, but were perhaps ½ a yard short of pace and this meant that rumbles by the likes of Smurf, Humph’s & Escott often ended up in turnover ball. In addition, Avon’s experienced pack played the referee to perfection at the breakdowns.

As expected there was the usual niggle from Avon with a number of late an unnecessary tackles going in off the ball.

Oldfield half backs Freddie Burns & Bunti were on the end of a few and slowly frustration levels built. A period of Avon pressure then saw the ball whipped back to their fly half who knocked over a sweet drop goal for a 3-0 lead.

Oldfield hit back and worked up field, but turnover ball saw Avon try to shift the ball wide from deep. Smithy playing his 33rd year at Oldfield munched the Avon centre, but as the ball was spilt in the tackle it broke free for the Avon winger to go the length of the field. The try went unconverted and at 8-0 Avon enjoyed a lead that was a little flattering, especially given the abrasive way they set about playing the match.

Persistent infringements by Avon and the referees’ failure to police rucks and mauls firmly led to a number of skirmishes, all of which were of a fairly low key nature. Late hits continued, fingers were too often found in eyes and some of the footwork on the deck was more than a little careless. With 10 minutes or so to go in the first half, Froggy shepherded an Avon kick into touch, only to be taken out, off the pitch by a blatant, late and high tackle. Froggy naturally responded and before you knew it, the powder keg had blown and a full 20 man brawl kicked off.

This is not and never has been the way that Oldfield play, but in the face of constant Avon provocation the Oldfield side refused to be bullied and stood their ground.

Eventually order was restored by the referee and the match continued under threat of abandonment if the handbags continued. Oldfield settled into their game and some quick second phase ball saw Burns hit Ollie Hayes with a long, flat pass and Ollie broke through the centre and crashed over under the posts. The Burns conversion made the score 8-7 to Avon at half time.

The Avon supporters on the touchline were their usual vociferous selves and when lock Ricky Gibson crashed over for a legitimate score in the corner they couldn’t help but dish up an excessive amount of verbal abuse aimed at touch judge and ex-chairman Barry Quintin. One blazered midget, in particular, ought to take a trip down to specsavers as Ricky had clearly grounded the ball in the corner. He was subsequently bounced with the hit from a scrambling Avon defence, but the touch judge and referee rightly adjudged that the initial grounding was in field.

The now common taunts from Avon’s faithful about Oldfield poaching their youngsters, which amounts to no more than self-delusion continued, but this was tempered by the score line stretching out to 14-8.  The game was disrupted as Oldfield used multiple substitutions, but fortunately it finished without further violence and after a further try meant Oldfield ran out as deserved 19-8 winners.