Banbury Bulls poor run of form continued with an away loss against Kidderminster Carolians in their latest Midlands 2 West South fixture.

Banbury were again unable to name a settled side as injuries and unavailablities disrupted the travelling squad, but several players were given the chance to impress coach James Kerr and gain some valuable first team experience.

The match proved to be a close affair despite the scoreline and whilst the home side had much in the way of territorial dominance, Banbury always looked threatening on the break. The first half swung quickly in favour of Kidderminster as hooker Andy Ell was shown a yellow card after just 10 minutes of play for illegally interfering in a breakdown on the Banbury five metre line. With a 3-0 lead thanks to an early penalty goal to their credit, Kidderminster pushed hard to make the man advantage count, but solid defensive work and some poor handling skills saw Banbury concede no points whilst down to 14 players.

Banbury's forays into the home side's half increased in frequency as the half progressed and it seemed like a score was just one pass away. However too often the opportunity for the pass was missed or ignored and Banbury had to settle for a penalty goal from the boot of centre Mike Smith to make the scores level at 3-3.

The second half continued much in the same vein with the home side having decent territory and Banbury striking out on attacking forays. But with the referee applying the strict letter of the law on all occassions the game struggled to get any flow going and this seemed to suit Kidderminster better. With 20 minutes of the second half gone Banbury's defensive wall was finally breached after a number of drives from the Kiddy pack close to the Bulls line. Eventually the pressure told and the home side Number 8 was able to just get over the line to score. With a succcessful conversions added, Kidderminster now led by 10 points to 3. And worse was to follow for the visitors straight from the kick off. Kidderminster fielded the ball and set up a ruck in the middle of their own half. The resulting ball was kicked over the head of winger Andy Mawle and, as can often happen, the bounce of ball totally deceived the defenders, landing neatly in the hands of the onrushing Kidderminster centre. He had a simple job to fix the Banbury full-back and pass out to the replacement winger who ran in to score with his first touch of the ball!

Banbury now found themselves 14-3 behind and needed to dig deep to get back into the game. However despite several good opportunities, the killer pass kept alluding the Bulls and they had to make do with another penalty from Smith to make the score 14-6.

However the Bulls luck was exemplified in the last play of the game. As Banbury attacked on the halfway line, looking for the score to gain them a losing bonus point, the ball was seen to be clearly knocked on by a Kidderminster player. Seen by everyone, except the referee. With play allowed to continue as both teams stopped in bemusement, the Kidderminster centre scooped up the ball and easily ran in to score under the posts. The conversion was successful and Banbury found themselves, rather unfairly, on the end of a 24-6 loss.

The Bulls need to keep improving their performances, and with continued hard work, a more settled team (and a bit of the luck now due to them) they will soon get their rewards. Banbury return to Bodicote Park to take on Cheltenham North on Saturday 19th November, kick-off at 2:15pm.