Painswick 32 Old Centralians 31

PAINSWICK produced their best performance of the season so far, to beat Old Centurians in an entertaining game on Saturday.

Old Centurians who play in a league higher were completely blown away in the first half trailing 24 - 7, but produced a comeback to be leading 31 - 29 with only ten minutes remaining, however Painswick deservedly won the match with a penalty from Eddie Bressington.

Tim Friend opened the scoring and raced over unoppossed in the first five minutes to score under the posts, Bressington , duly added the extra points.

The visitors hit back immediately with a converted try to level the scores. Painswick center Chris Combes restored their lead when he crashed over for a unconverted try.

Straight from the restart second row Ian Miller gathered the kick and off loaded the prop Ben Pollard who made in roads in the visitors defence to set up a ruck, the ball was then fed along the backs for winger Aussie Smith to round his opposite number to score near the posts, Bressington added the extra points.

Just before half-time James Lynn increased Painswick's lead with a unconverted try after good interplay between forwards and backs.

At the start of the second half Combes added his second try after a well-timed crossfield kick by Bressington to score in the corner, to give Painswick a 29 - 7 lead.

At this stage it looked as though the homeside would run away with the game but the visitors showed why they play a league higher with an excellent fight-back.

They scored three converted tries and a penalty in a fifteen minute spell to put them in the lead for the first time and it looked as though all Painswick's hard work had been undone.

However, Bressington kept his cool and duly slotted over the kick to give them the lead once again, which they managed to hold until the final whistle.