It's three and easy (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

It's three and easy

THREE fine tries saw hard-working Minety see off Bradford on Avon 17-9 in Saturday's Dorset & Wilts Division One North encounter.

Minety got off to a confident start, penning Bradford back into their own 22 with a combination of driving mauls from the forwards and bullocking runs from the threequarters.

Halfbacks Andy Brown and Gareth Dyer orchestrated both phases of play with considerable skill.

The visitors put up a resolute rearguard action though and frustrated the home team's early efforts.

Twice Minety mauled their way over the tryline only for the ball to be held up or knocked on at the crucial moment.

Winger Ollie Bown looked to have scored only to be called back for a foot in touch. And Minety went even closer to breaking the deadlock when a penalty goal attempt by inside centre James Tweedale flew just wide of the posts.

But on 25 minutes, Bradford's defences were pierced when Brown charged down an attempted punt upfield to allow Tweedale to pick the up the ball and score.

And Minety soon had Bradford pinned back on their own line again after the restart winger Martin Coe thwarted with 10 metres to go. Tweedale converted to put Mintey 12-0 up.

Bradford then lost Simon Legg to injury but rallied round to produce their best spell of the game Jamie Curtis scoring two penalty goals.

After the break Curtis scored a third penalty goal to send Bradford to within three points of Minety.

But Minety regained control scoring their third try outside centre Tim Vaughan galloping past the Bradford defence to touch down and make it 17-9.

The home team continued to press until the final whistle, making sure that Bradford were given no further opportunity to score.

A late penalty goal attempt by Tweedale might have added to Minety's lead but he narrowly missed the mark.

After the game, skipper Andy Brown said: "That was a much better performance than last week against Cricklade.

"There were times when we really managed to put it all together and when we did, we looked very good.

"It was there for the first 30 minutes, but then we went to sleep.

"Fortunately, we managed to get back on track before the end of the game.

"That was a long way from a perfect performance, but things do seem gradually to be getting better."

On Saturday, Minety play host to Berks, Bucks & Oxon Premiership leaders Bicester in the second round of the Powergen Junior Vase.