Excerpt from The Trader November 3rd 1994

Accurate Allen Kicks Burntwood

To Victory

Stuart Allen returned to the Burntwood line up and kicked his side to victory over Bloxwich in a match that they won more convincingly than the 25-22 score line suggests.

      The fly-half landed 20 of the points himself, finding accuracy whatever the angle or distance, as Burntwood put themselves in a commanding position but let the visitors back into the picture in the late stages.

      Although Bloxwich made it 7-0 early on with a converted try, Burntwood were soon back into it with two Allen penalties.

      A penalty for Bloxwich made it 6-10 but Allen again penetrated the posts with successive kicks to enable Burntwood to creep 12-10 ahead at the interval.

      The margin increased to nine points with Burntwood's only try of the match when Ian Harris broke from a ruck on the blind side to go over and Allen, almost inevitably, kicked the conversion.

      Although Bloxwich rallied at this stage, concentrating on mauling tactics, some sturdy defensive work from Mark Fisher, Mark Wager, James Holmes and Pete Rawlings kept them out.

      Two more Allen penalties pushed the score to 22-10 but the final 10 minutes belonged to Bloxwich. A try reduced the deficit to 25-15 but their next score, a converted try in the last minute, came too late as time ran out on their fight back.

    Steve Pugh, once a first team regular, had his first senior outing of the season at hooker and did enough to stay in contention for Saturday's Pilkington Shield visit to Coventry Technical.

     Nigel Wilkins ran in two tries as Burntwood seconds outplayed Bloxwich 33-5. Andy Donnelly, Martin Ottey and Andy White also went over with Rob Forsyth kicking four conversions.

Dave Jarrett and Matt Bray helped themselves to two tries apiece as Burntwood thirds ran up 32 points without reply against Lichfield sixth's team. Steve Swift also touched down with Kevin Cantrell and Mansell Thomas kicking the other points.

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