Bracknell retain Berkshire Cup

Published 30 Apr 2010 10:45 0 Comments

BRACKNELL Rugby Club finished the season on a high this weekend by clinching third place in National Three London and retaining the Berkshire Cup.

Veteran flanker Graham Sparks, 36, played his last game for the club as the Lily Hill Park side thrashed rock-bottom Haywards Heath 67-7 in their final league game of the campaign on Saturday.

And then the following day former director of rugby Greg Anstead hung up his boots after 17 years at the club following a comprehensive 74-10 win over Berks, Bucks & Oxon Champions Broadmoor Staff in the county cup.

Sparks has left to join his local club Tadley as player-coach, while Anstead, who previously played for Saracens, willl take a break from the sport.

Former first team prop, Anstead - who played for Bracknell in the heady heights of National One - was delighted to bow out on a high.

He said: "I had a sneaking suspicion with it being my last two games with the team something would go horribly wrong, but actually it was the opposite.

"We played some lovely rugby, won both games comfortably.

"We scored 141 points and conceded just 17, finished third in the league, won another Berkshire Cup - I don't think we could have asked for more."

On Saturday Bracknell had to contend with some spoiling tactics from Heath, but eventually ran in 11 tries to win at a canter.

Anstead said: "For 20 mintues they were pulling out all the dirty tricks you'd expect from a bottom of the table side.

"They were doing everything they could to stop us playing. But we just kept playing our game and eventually we ran away with it.

"If you stick to your game plan and increase the pace you should win every time. And that is what we did."

Top try-scorer Kevin McKenzie scored five on the day to move his tally to 25 for the season.

And Luke Carter, Stuart Mackay, Ben Nowak, Gareth Staples, Matt Brambley and Niko Maybury also crossed in the rout.

On Sunday in the Berkshire Cup, competition rules dictated that Bracknell could only play five first team regulars because Broadmoor play three divisions below them.

However a team that mixed youth and experience made light work of their rivals from Crowthorne.

Anstead said: "In many respects I thought it was going to be a bit closer.

"We put out a team that had never played together before, but we were dominant and scored tries from the very start.

"I have not been involved with the second team this season, so a lot of the guys that came in on Sunday were young guys I have never seen play senior rugby before.

"And I was very, very impressed with them."

And while Anstead has faith that the club's blossoming youth system will serve the first team well in years to come. He is also extremely satisfied that the club he is leaving is on sound financial grounds too.

He said: "I can walk away confident that the club is in a better situation than when I joined it.

"Every year that goes by the financial situation is getting stronger and stronger. And that bodes very well for the future.

"Ian Hallam is doing an excellent job as chairman and the club is going in the right direction."

Tweet

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

If you are registered with us, you can login here. If you are not registered, do so now.
Once logged in you wont have to complete word verification each time you post.

Prefer not to register?

Screen Name *required

Email (not displayed) *required

Usernames must be 4 - 20 characters. Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users can also take part in competitions and other features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.

Follow @bracknellnews