Hinckley’s unbeaten run of six games came to a painful end on Saturday against a Clifton side who are amongst the favourites for promotion to National 1 this season. The Station Road side despatched the Hornets with an apparently emphatic five try to one score line on a dreary late autumn afternoon in the West Country.
But this was no tame capitulation. The final score may suggest otherwise but Clifton were made to work hard for their victory and indeed were trailing the visitors for most of the first half and well into the second. There were only eight minutes left on the clock when Clifton finally managed to pull clear of the Hornets, and a last gasp try as the referee prepared to blow for time gave the score line a more than flattering gloss in Clifton’s favour. Clifton knew they had been in a dogfight and there was some relief amongst the Station Road faithful as the players shook hands.
DOR Chris Campbell was philosophical after the game. ‘What Clifton did today was show us the standard we are driving to get to. They were clinical in all areas of their game when they had the opportunities. We counted that we had more significant attacks in the final third than they did but we lacked the cutting edge… and they were ruthless. You have to give a side credit for that. We managed to get field position throughout the game but we just made little errors, which you get away with against some sides but not a side like Clifton.

‘What’s important is that we stay level-headed. We were unbeaten in six but that doesn’t mean we are an outstanding side yet. Conversely, losing one game doesn’t mean we are a poor side.’
Clifton had opened the scoring as early as the sixth minute after Captain Alex Salt had been penalised just inside the Hinckley half for holding on. Clifton kicked to the corner, took the line-out and drove over for the try in an ominously efficient manner.
The lead though was short-lived as Hornets, in a near carbon copy of the first try, drove their way to the line for Dale Bowyer to touch down after Joe Wilson had drilled a penalty into the corner from the Clifton 10m line. When Wilson knocked over the conversion, Hinckley were ahead.
The rest of the half saw little between the sides. Both had scoring opportunities but neither was able to break down some tenacious defending at either end.
Clifton did briefly seize back the lead on the half hour when fly-half Zak Ward knocked over a penalty from 30m but Wilson responded seven minutes later with a Hinckley penalty from 35m in front of the posts.
There was a brief outbreak of handbags, which attracted a stern lecture from the referee, just before the break, but, as the players departed, at 8-10, it was anybody’s game.
What broke the deadlock was a five-minute period early in the second half when Hornets conceded two tries in quick succession (something that has become an unwelcome habit in recent matches) to put clear water between the two sides.
First, Clifton secured a penalty 30m from the Hinckley line and opted to kick for the corner. There was a clear knock-on in the resultant line-out but the referee allowed play to continue and the ball was fed left finding centre Will Owen (who was later named Man of the Match) was able to find his way to the line for the score. Ward converted and Clifton were back in front.
From the kick-off, the ball was returned to Hinckley but Salt and Luke Hibberd collided in attempting to take what was an innocuous kick, the ball went loose, Cliton retrieved and Hornets were only saved from conceding a try by a forward pass.
That should have been a wake-up but Hinckley were then uncharacteristically pushed off their own ball from the resultant scrum on their 10m line and in the confusion, Clifton were able to run the ball to the line for a second score. Ward missed the conversion but 8-10 had become 20-10 in a blink of the proverbial eye.
From there, it was always going to be a big ask for the Hornets but they did make a fist of it. Joe Wilson put over a second penalty after 62 minutes when Cliton were caught offside on their own 22m line to close the gap to one converted try and a few minutes later it seemed that Hornets may get back on terms when they set up a rolling maul from a penalty line-out 10m from the Clifton line but, when the ball was released, Mitch Lamb couldn’t take the scoring pass and Clifton escaped.
A couple of minutes later, a superb 50-22 kick set up yet another Hinckley line-out inside the Clifton red zone but again Hinckley could not convert.
That effectively signalled the end for Hornets. With just seven minutes left on the clock and Hinckley desperate to retrieve the ball, Clifton were able to exploit a gap in the line and a lovely jinking run saw the Clifton centre go over for the killing score. Six minutes later, as play was drawing to a close, the ball went wide to Clifton winger Fin Sharp who squeezed in at the corner. Ward converted and the referee brought proceedings to a halt. At 34-13, Hornets would have felt that the gods had been unkind.
Nick Robinson