A bitterly disappointing end to the rugby season

Evesham completed their 2000/2001 Midlands West 3 (South) league season on a bitterly disappointing note losing for the second time this year on the last kick on the game.

Added to this Evesham had what looked to be a perfectly good try disallowed and the second half went on for 45 minutes before OC's got the all- important penalty award in front of the home side's posts.

Evesham were surprised by the initial onslaught from the visitors, but some good tackling by Neil Robinson and Wayne Brotherton put Evesham onto the front foot and before long they were pressing the OC's line.

But the OC's managed to turn defence into attack and scored a penalty following an offside decision in their favour in front of Evesham's posts.

Evesham returned the gesture when No 8 Jim Moulton latched onto a long pass from skipper Phil Parsons to slip past the OC's midfield defence and score under their posts. Parsons added the conversion.

Eventually a missed tackle in midfield let the OC's centre in for a try which was converted to give them a 10-7 half time lead.

In the second half second row James Duncan, who had replaced the injured Jon Nettell mid-way through the first half, made a big difference to Evesham's set piece play particularly in the line out where fellow second row Neil McVea dominated the front of the line.

From a ruck in the OC's half Diston fed Parsons who managed to slip through a gap and as the covering defence came across he looped a pass back inside to full back Doug Payne in support.

Payne touched down only to see the try disallowed for an adjudged forward pass, to everyone's surprise, by the referee some twenty yards behind the play.

Evesham continued to run the ball at every attempt in search of the elusive try. Ian Burton, on in place of Moulton, was stopped short of the line and prop Andy Sheward was held up over the line when it looked as though he had managed to ground the ball before defenders dived in to kill the ball.

Finally, from a five metre scrum Parsons whipped the ball out wide where Payne fed the ball onto replacement winger Chris Oreschnick who dived over in the corner for the try. Parsons narrowly failed with the touchline conversion with the game already in injury time according to the referee.

Leading by just two points Evesham looked to have the game won, but in the fifth minute of injury time OC's were awarded a penalty which they converted to win by just a point. The game was sponsored by Bass Brewers.

This week Evesham travel to Pershore for their final non-league game of the season kick off 3pm.