A grey day with a slight breeze welcomed the visitors from Leicestershire who, since being promoted a few seasons ago, have settled well at level 6 and currently are a few positions above Olney in the league.

Olney will have had an inkling of what was coming prior to this fixture as traditionally Oadby are a side who rely heavily on their forwards to gain an advantage. This was proved to be the case from the first whistle and would continue in the same pattern throughout the whole match. The first try came from the away side when play had been in Olney’s 22 for a while and the seemingly inevitable forward drives resulted in a burst from 5m to score wide on the right which was converted. A scrum penalty allowed an attempt at goal from far out but this was unsuccessful. However, further pressure in the scrums 5 minutes later resulted in a penalty try taking the score to 0-14.

Olney knew they were a better side with the ball in hand so when they did gain possession the aim was to “run them about a bit”. This paid off well on 20 minutes when some good phases of play led to a try by Ollie Betteridge close to the posts making his conversion a formality and the score 7-14. A Betteridge penalty soon after closed the scores to 10-14 and the game was closer than the crowd would have thought after the earlier dominance of the Oadby pack. Some good runs from Wingers Marcus Goss and Noddy Deighton as well as centres Stu Livesey and James Brock kept Olney moving in the right direction but it was Oadby who were next on the scoreboard with the inevitable scrum penalty. A further score after a lineout catch and drive saw Oadby sore an unconverted try to extend their lead going into the break with the half time score at 10-22.

Olney had the wind in their favour in the second half and made a couple of changes to their line up Harry Sturley had to leave with an arm injury. Ollie Fearis replaced him in the pack. In the backs, James brock was replaced by James Gardner. The changes were not about to change Olney’s style of play though and the intent was still to try to keep play more open. Predictably Oadby changed nothing and another scrum penalty saw David Rainbow off for 10 minutes. George Stanton had to come on as front row but losing a man from the pack after a bit of reshuffling meant the home side were retreating giving Oadby the platform for their bonus point try, converted taking the score to 10-29. The home side were not about to roll over and worked their way up to an attacking position and a fine move was finished off by winger Goss scoring close to the posts which was again converted by Betteridge. 17-29. Unfortunately the penalty count against the home side was increasing, some of which seemed to be unexplained but when another scrum penalty in the Olney 22 was taken closer to the line for a bit of chat, Oadby gained another score when they opted for the set piece instead of the shot at goal and drove over for the try. Towards the end of the match it appeared the man with the whistle was predicting the penalties, so it came as no surprise when Oadby had another successful shot at goal taking their tally to 39 points. It was Olney who ended the stronger when Flanker Josh Meadows capped a fine display by running fully 40 metres down the right touchline, shrugging off tackles to touch down in the corner. Betteridge converting leaving the score at the final whistle 24-39.

As in previous weeks, it seems as if the Olney boys are not far off, but in this league there are some experienced sides who are just having the upper hand. This will surely change as the players gain experience themselves at this level and results will go in their favour. Some strange/interesting shirts appeared from the dressing rooms later and a good evening was had by all.