In front of a record attendance for a 2nd team fixture, the crowd were rewarded with a thrilling spectacle of 13 tries as the lead swapped hands with both teams enjoying spells of domination. With many veterans on display, it was also a surprisingly fast paced match to play in and there were undoubtedly some aching bodies afterwards.

The Avon self-styled “Elite” edged a closely contested first half by 19 – 15 with both sides scoring 3 tries, Avon’s coming from Ed Bolton, Chaz Meddick and Mark Kelly, but Paul Bates making the difference with 2 successful conversions.

Bradford on Avon were pleased to note that this was the first occasion that they had fielded both 1st and 2nd teams on the same day since 2019, a sign of their growing club success. Meanwhile, the Avon 2nds were proud to play in the special all-black centenary shirts sponsored by the Elizabethan lodge of Bath Freemasons.

This good-natured friendly match continued in a similar vein after the interval with both sides continuing to swap tries. Kelly added his second, whilst Dan Mutlow, Rich Leat and Damien Sawyer also touched down. Bates slotted another 2 conversions, whilst BoA also added 3 more tries themselves, including a final flourish at the end.

Special mention should be made to Ben Hurd, the Avon skipper, who refereed the second half and also to the BoA player who refereed the first half to ensure that the game took place and was played in the right spirit. It was also good to see Alex Morris, Chris Hurd, Josh Harding-Wyatt and Zac Holbrook-Wyatt come out of retirement to don the Avon shirt once again.