Chris Smith ends his last Bishop’s Stortford home game with conversion in 61-24 victory over Dings Crusaders in National 1
Chris Smith was given the honour of converting Bishop’s Stortford’s final try in their 61-24 thrashing of Dings Crusaders on Saturday (April 12) as he played his last home game for the club.
The popular winger, who also scored one of the hosts’ nine tries in the National 1 contest, is leaving after six seasons at Silver Leys.
His successful conversion completed a fifth straight victory for ninth-placed Stortford, who are two points behind seventh-placed Sale FC in the battle for a top-half finish with just a trip to third-from-bottom Leicester Lions remaining on Saturday April 26.
With both sides looking to play running rugby in bright sunshine, there was something of a carnival atmosphere and Stortford played some outstanding rugby early on, rushing to a 26-0 lead in 24 minutes with two tries apiece for Tom Mills and Isaac Bell. Mike Cooke converted three.
Dings, who are one place below Stortford, fought hard throughout and were rewarded with tries to Tom Gollop and Tom Hargan, both converted by Jamie Elswood, which sandwiched a fifth try to the home team from Will Rogers.
As injuries mounted on both sides - Stortford finished with a prop at No 8 and two back rows in the three-quarters after both centres had been injured - play in the second half was more disjointed, but the tries continued to flow.
It was tit for tat initially, with home tries to Jack Biard and Chris Bolton - both converted by Cooke - cancelled out by unconverted scores to Ezra Caven and Max Rivers.
Stortford finished with a flourish as Smith dotted down and the winger was then allowed to end the game by converting the final try from Declan Murphy, which was created by a kick ahead and follow-up tackle from Rogers, who finished the game at centre.
Stortford: Murphy, C Smith, Biard, Pope, Mills, Cooke, Bolton; T Smith, Bell, Hill, Ferguson, Kiff, Langworthy, Jackson, Rogers. Replacements: Peck, Rayment, Brownhill, Jones, Hayes.
Dings: Foot, Hargan, Tarling, Boulton, Rivers, Elswood, Jones; Sims, Gollop, Ncube, Thompson, Lane, Bennett, Cripps, Tull. Replacements: Farara, English, Bilton, Knight, Caven.
Scorers: Stortford - Tries: Mills 3, 24, Bell 11, 15, Rogers 36, Biard 52, Bolton 61, C Smith 73, Murphy 80; Cons: Cooke 4, 16, 24, 37, 52, 62, 75, C Smith 80. Dings - Tries: Gollop 30, Hargan 39, Caven 58, Rivers 65; Cons: Elswood 31, 40.
Referee: Ben Raynor.
Star man: Will Rogers (Stortford).
Attendance: 806.
