Stroud lose to Thorns in a needle encounter (From Stroud News and Journal)

Stroud lose to Thorns in a needle encounter

Western Counties North Thornbury 27pts, Stroud 1st XV 21

'Set, crouch' - penalty to Thornbury and the visitors were 3-0 down inside two minutes on Saturday.

From that point, Stroud and their supporters felt it was never going to be their day and there was certainly a bit of needling involved at various times.

And if you're wondering what happened to 'engage' - then so, too, were Stroud's front row!

Former County scrum- half Tony Down tried to ease the tensions at a scrum soon after where a blatant home knock-on resulted in a Thornbury put-in.

Down,well aware of the official's error, sportingly gave the ball to Stroud's John Farr, another former County scrum-half, to put in. When Down was instructed take the ball back, each player smiled, walked between the setting packs and just got on with it.

However, it was Thornbury who increased their lead, but again in controversial manner.

Another seemingly blatant knock-on was disregarded and the ball was fed wide in a simple manner to winger Matt Pritchard who scored in the corner. Simon Weaver added a good conversion to his earlier penalty.

The visitors collected themselves and attacked Thornbury who looked vulnerable in defence.

Despite knocking on the door a couple of times, it was left to Mike Thornley, who is at the top of his game at the moment, to strike a neat drop goal.

Barely after the restart, Weaver added another penalty, but Stroud countered with a fine forward-dominated attack where James Bashford drove over.

There was sufficient time for Thornbury to add another brace of penalties from Weaver's boot before the half came to an end with the hosts 19-8 to the good and both sets of supporters shaking their heads in disbelief at what had unfolded before them.

Stroud surged into the second period and were awarded an early penalty that Guy Hopson slotted.

It became interesting when a good forwards' drive put Darren Eagle over. More curious and inconsistent decisions followed when Rupert Wakefield was pinged for delaying one throw.

Curiously, Thornbury had also not properly engaged at a couple of scrums, and even stood up on one occasion as Stroud pushed them back, yet they were not penalised.

On an otherwise upsetting afternoon, especially from Stroud's point of view, the game's best try came from Thornbury's loosehead, Matt Gay. Lurking wide on the wing after a decent attack, Gay had a good 25 metres to run to the line.

There was still time for Weaver to add another penalty before Stroud pushed Thornbury back over their line for a late Rob Higgins' try.