Old Bedians kicked off their league season in fine style with a convincing win over Carnforth, who travelled to Didsbury in a reverse of the first game last season.

Bedians lost two close games to Carnforth last season, but were confident that if they could win the forward battle against the strong Carnforth pack, the Bedians back line would be able to overcome their Lancastrian counterparts.

Bedians began brightly, enjoying the majority of the possession, and most of it in the opposition half. It took less than ten minutes for centre Vince Betty to crash over for the first of his two tries, after several phases of play in the forwards sucked in the Carnforth defence leaving space for the backs.
Shortly after, again after a series of drives from the forwards, fly half Mike Gallagher ran in Bedians second try after a planned backs move bamboozled the Carnforth defence.

This set the pattern for the match. Bedians were formidable in the set piece, with Rich Thompson and Ben Dawson securing their own line out ball, and skipper Steve Bannell stealing several scrum balls against the head. Around the pitch, Bedians were stronger at the breakdown, with the entire pack working hard throughout to secure possession. The Bedians back three made the most of the possession and twice added to the try count before the first half was over.

In the second half, Carnforth fought back strongly, but weren’t able to make their pressure tell, with handling errors ruining two or three good opportunities. Bedians defence held firm and eventually forced further Carnforth errors as with two of the Bedians back row queuing up to take an interception try.
The final try of the day summed up the game, Bedians forwards working their way up the pitch with multiple phases before releasing the ball to the back line for Vince Betty to score his second try with the last move of the game.

Ben Rogerson converted five of Bedians six tries and also added two penalties to improve the scoreline. Overall a very strong performance, and very encouraging for the coming season. Bedians travel to new boys Birchfield next week.