League Result: Bingham 25 - 24 Nottinghamians

After being turned over 62-7 in the corresponding fixture earlier in the season, having had a few close losses and a season blighted by injuries and availability, the narrowest of wins was secured against local rivals Nottinghamians. A win is a win though.

Bingham was buoyed by the return of a couple of long-term absentees and few old faces making a return to gain this important win and take us off the bottom of the table.

Hamians started on the offensive with Bingham defending well for the 1st 15 minutes with a try saving tackle from Oscar Ciaurro and a penalty from Matt Cumming allowing Bingham to take the lead. This was surrendered after Hamians rallied and went over in the corner, 3 - 5.

A feeling then of the gods being very much on our side when the Hamians back row crosses the line but runs through the dead ball line to give Bingham the chance to clear. That got mentioned in the after match awards.

The game pretty much see-sawed with attacks from Bingham followed by attacks from Hamians - Matt Cumming showing great hands and feet with Harry Bowles running a great decoy line from an attacking scrum allowed Matt to score under the posts and convert.

A drive from Hamians off the back of a scrum just before half-time then had the score 10 - 10

Jonathan Thomas once again proved his worth in the 2nd half scoring 2 tries, the 1st came early in the 2nd half after a couple of forward drives; Matt adding the conversion. Hamians came back and despite some spirited defence with Lee Fretwell in the bin for a team yellow conceding too many penalties, the gap eventually opened for Hamians to draw level again.

A kick to touch forced a line out to Hamians 10m out and, despite having lost Chris Heathcote; our main line out jumper, great pressure was put on Hamians on their own line forcing the turnover for Jonathan Thomas to go over in the corner. 22 - 17 with 20 mins to go.

A series of Penalties conceded gave Hamians the opportunity to quickly move upfield score and take the lead again with the conversion 22 - 24 and 10 mins to play.

Matt Cumming took on a penalty around the Hamians 10m line and to the relief of all saw the ball sail through the posts for what must have been a big blow for Hamians.

The last 5mins again see-sawed with some tough hitting tackles but held firm. Solid scrums, better lineout than we have had for a while and the backs constant tackling all led to a great overall team performance & morale-boosting win 25 - 24.