Bartlett second half hat trick seals it for Blues

Trowbridge began their season at Doric Park on Saturday with a visit from Newbury Blues, who defeated them twice last season. The Berkshire side has had an influx of players from Basingstoke, who were relegated from London 1 South last season and introduced 3 of those players, including former Trowbridge flanker Ryan Davis, who has also played for Oakmeadians from Bournemouth since he left Trowbridge when they were based at Green Lane.

The match was preceded by the observation of a period of silence for ex Dorset and Wiltshire President and Trowbridge life member Mike Meineke who passed away during the week in his native South Africa.

The match opened with play in the Trowbridge half but defences were in charge and there was some early season rustiness about play. Davis and No 8 Josh Winfield were prominent for the visitors during this period but there was no scoring. Trowbridge improved as the first half progressed and their forwards exerted some pressure in the scrums to the extent that on several occasions they opted for a scrum instead of taking kickable penalty opportunities. The line outs were unpredictable and more than once Trowbridge players were isolated in attacking positions only to be penalised for not releasing in the tackle.

After half an hour, Winfield found a gap and went over for a well taken try grounding the ball under the posts. The conversion attempt by skipper Dan Thorne was charged down by Aaron Bray. Trowbridge returned to the attack with centre Dave Finlay prominent but the Newbury defence held firm. The Trowbridge forwards were attacking but no scoring chances came until Newbury prop Ben Hicks illegally intervened at a breakdown 40 metres from the Newbury line. He was penalised and also shown a yellow card. Lloyd Davis kicked the penalty and the whistle was blown for half time with the score 5-3 to the visitors.

At this stage Trowbridge were quite confident they could overhaul the deficit playing down the slope and started the second half confidently. Lloyd Davis gave way to Josh Frost with Dave Finlay moving from centre to fly half. Frost took over the kicking duties but missed an early penalty. At the same time Newbury's Duncan Craigen was yellow carded but while the second row was off the field, Newbury took a quickly taken line out on their right, full back Toby Thorne made ground across the field and left wing Josh Bartlett out paced the Trowbridge to score on the left. Dan Thorne converted to make the score 12-3. Soon after Toby Thorne also received a yellow card for an illegal tackle but Newbury were able to negate Trowbridge's attacks in his a ensue. Man of the match Bartlett scored twice in the last ten minutes to allow the visitors to gain a bonus point and Dan Thorne converted the second of these tries when the final whistle was blown.

In the end Blues were good value for their win and their performances will improve but they are likely to be challenging the leaders. For Trowbridge they will have easier opponents and they will want to improve when they visit Swindon next week.