On a sticky surface the game swung between kicking contest and forward slugfest, Stour’s key man fullback Caolan Ryan who was solid under the high ball, cleared his lines effectively and coolly slotted 4 kicks at goal. Stour’s injury woes were back with a vengeance though, both lock forwards Ben Hughes & Robbie Hurrell failing to finish the game.

Sione Tu’ipolotu replaced the injured Ben Barkley at centre, while Adam Sturdy, Ciaran Moore & Chris Depper dropped to the bench, giving starts to Hurrell, Drew Harper & Steve Blackburn. With Jordan Page unavailable young Luke Cullen covered the replacement hooker role, joining Gareth Bown who covered the entire backline.

An early penalty opportunity was landed by Ryan, but Canning hit back twice to give the hosts a 6-3 lead after 20min as both sides probed the others’ defences. Stour finally broke out of defence through winger Nathan Bressington, who chased his kick ahead to force a lineout from which the visitors executed a neat catch & drive, Tu’ipolotu the man to score from short range.

Stour hit straight back from the restart, working the ball through the phases before a wide pass found Hurrell one-on-one against a significantly smaller defender, he smashed through to score & Ryan converted, 27min 6-17.

With Bees opting to hoist a flurry of high balls, the match then drifted until Canning slotted a 3rd successful penalty attempt just on halftime, 9-17. He failed to find the target though with an early 2nd half attempt, but redeemed himself with a nicely taken individual try when he seemed to leave the entire Stour shortside defence wrongfooted in the mud. 16-17 on 48min.

Running rugby became increasingly difficult as bodies tired and the playing surface started to deteriorate. Ryan had 2 further penalty attempts that he was unable to land, and Stour found themselves pinned in their own 22 defending for long stretches of play. The siege was lifted by a huge return punt by Bressington that forced a lineout in Bees’ 22, Stour executed another catch & drive that saw captain Nigel Mukarati score from short range. 16-22 on the hour mark.

Bees dug deep, worked their way downfield and returned the compliment with a catch & drive of their own through no.8 Steve Leach. Canning converted, snatching the narrowest of leads 23-22 with 10min to go. The lead lasted barely 3min though, Ryan responding with a nicely struck long range penalty kick, 23-25.

A nasty ankle injury suffered by Hughes in the lineout caused a lengthy delay. Stour looked to have driven Bees of their own feed at the subsequent scrum but Sturdy was penalised. Canning’s penalty attempt flew just wide though. Following a further injury stoppage Stour secured their own ball near their 10m line, but were bemused to find veteran Sturdy again penalised for not driving straight against a tighthead offering little by way of resistance. With the clock ticking down Canning lined up the kick and drilled it straight at the posts, but much to the relief of the visiting supporters it fell just short.

Stour drilled the ball long and defended grimly for the remaining few seconds, finally forcing a knock-on and scrambling the ball into touch. Final score 23-25.