Cinderford avenged an early season defeat by Luctonians as the teams produced a seasonal cracker in testing conditions at Mortimer Park. The visitors had the advantage of the strong wind gusting straight down the pitch in the first half, but it was the home team who started brightly and they opened the scoring after just two minutes with a try from Caleb Montgomery, which Jack Park converted. Cinderford responded with a series of strong forward carries which eventually led to Dan Broady scoring an unconverted try. A yellow card for the home team’s Montgomery saw Cinderford take advantage of the extra man with Will Baldwin bursting through to score a try under the posts, which Luke McMahon converted. Then a penalty for the home team from Park made it 12-10 to the visitors at half-time.
Once again it was the hosts who were pressing forward as the second half got underway and they re-took the lead when Ben Link surged over, with Park converting. Luctonians looked to be taking control of the match when Park added a penalty after 52 minutes of play to make it 20-12. However, it was Cinderford who were building up momentum as the match went into the final quarter and they produced a thrilling try scored by the outstanding Baldwin and converted by Harry Johnson, to put themselves right back in contention. With the light fading and the rain pouring down both teams were giving it everything, but a penalty awarded to Cinderford following a high tackle enabled Johnson to put his team ahead with seven minutes remaining and as conditions deteriorated even further they were able to close out the game and celebrate a hard earned victory.
Cinderford; Sonny Greenman, Stan Folks-Underhill, Will Baldwin, Harry Johnson, Sam Smith, Luke McMahon, Jimmy Williams, Harry Edwards, Nathan Taylor, James Elliot, Tyler Jerrum (Capt.), Jonny Holliday, George Knowles, Dan Broady, Aaron Ryan.
Repls; Thomas Hill, George Perry, George Angell, George Evans, Tom Samak.