REPORT | Battling Blues suffer defeat in Caldy

Posted: 28th January 2023
 

Bedford Blues suffered their first defeat of 2023 as they went down 36-28 on their first ever trip to Paton Field to take on Caldy.

In truth, the hosts probably deserved their victory as they used the conditions much the better and totally dominated the set piece game that had Blues on the ropes right from the first whistle and offered constant territory and possession.

Blues fought hard to give themselves a chance but all the critical moments seemed to go in Caldy’s favour as they continued their remarkable run of recent form to keep on climbing the Championship table in their debut season in the second-tier.

The baying crowd made for a hostile atmosphere and that got them over the line at the end with two late tries to turn the tide of the game.

Blues were behind for large periods of the game and were flattered to be only 21-14 down at the break.

Caldy’s maul was always going to be destructive – it was about trying to limit the damage – and that was the way they opened the scoring after just minutes, Chris Pilgrim dotting down.

The scrum half was then booked for a deliberate stoppage of Matt Worley in full flight and that should have given Bedford the ascendency.

Credit to Caldy for not allowing that to happen, even if Blues did equalise through Sean French’s first score, but the hosts rallied with 14 as Louis Beer crossed to put them back in-front.

They made it even better when back to a full compliment as Adam Aigbokhae terrorised the Blues defence and had players hanging off him when he dotted it down.

Blues were in need of something special and they got it on the stroke of half time as Matt Worley took matters into his own hands and bamboozled the Caldy defence to jink and jive his way from halfway to close the gap.

It was an unbelievable start to the second half as Blues turned things round to lead for the first time after 44 minutes.

After Joey Conway stuck a big paw out to the line, French added his second with a breakaway score to make it 28-21 to Bedford.

That should have given Blues enough impetus to go on and win the game, and did have chances you’d have to say, but there’s just something about Caldy at the moment and in the end, Blues were powerless to stop them in their tracks.

Elliot Gourlay cut the gap but failed to convert it to leave the score 28-26, but with a vociferous crowd baying for blood they got to the line 60 seconds from time to win the game.

With last play called at kick-off, Blues scrambled to win the ball back and went for the kitchen sink. That left them vulnerable and they were picked off to lose their second bonus point as Caldy took the lead to an unassailable amount.

Time to dust ourselves down and look towards the Championship Cup.