BEDWORTH kept their promotion hopes alive after a hard-fought victory against top of the table Dunlop. Firstly Dunlop gained good field position but were met by a stern Bedworth pack who repelled their first real attacking play and the ball was cleared to safety. Bedworth’s first chance came as several good carries led to the ball being spun wide but they failed to capitalise on a two-man overlap as Danny Coleman was given a poor pass with the line at his mercy. Dunlop had a chance to open the scoring but a simple penalty shot at goal drifted wide of the post before Bedworth had a chance to log the first points of the afternoon but Alan Foster’s shot came back off the upright. After 25 minutes, the league leaders finally struck as Craig Malcolm was dismissed to the sin bin for not rolling away at a tackle and the visitors made the man advantage count. A lineout on the Bedworth 10-metre line was moved away quickly to allow the Dunlop back line to strike. With a straight mispass, the ball was transferred to their inside centre who drifted outside Greg Taylor and ran into the line out wide. The resulting conversion was missed. Bedworth then had control for the final exchanges of the half but phase after phase of forward carries were repelled by the visitors. On the stroke of half-time, Malcolm smashed his way over the line, Foster kicked the conversion and Bedworth had the lead going into the break at 7-5. The second half began with Bedworth on the front foot putting Dunlop under enormous amounts of pressure before losing their way in attack and failed to make any inroads into the Dunlop defence. The men in black and gold struck twice in quick succession with the first seeing the ball moved up the blind side and the winger passed back inside into the hands of the supporting fullback and he crashed over in the corner. The conversion attempt just dropped under the bar. Dunlop’s third try came from a great move as they moved the ball off the lineout to their fly half and he managed to slip a pass to the fullback right on the gain line who found the supporting winger to go in under the posts. The simple conversion saw the visitors stretch their lead to 17-7. Bedworth’s forwards were dominating in the loose and, after several forward carries, the visitors tried to kill the ball at the breakdown which resulted in the Dunlop outside centre being sent to the sin bin. Foster sent over the resulting penalty. A long kick from Foster landed just short of the Dunlop line and their fullback tried to run it out and was met by Taylor and Steve Harwood. Bedworth stormed the ruck and won the ball for Malcolm to go over for his second try of the afternoon. Foster levelled the score with the conversion. Bedworth made the vital winning score with two minutes left as Foster found a way through the tired Dunlop forwards and fed Matty Randle who burst towards the line and drew the man before passing to skipper Adie Hall who dived over between the posts to secure the win before Foster sunk the conversion. | 
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