Buxton battle to solid victory over Ambleside as club continues to grow

Buxton battled to a tough win over Ambleside at the weekend as their growth continues.

It was the first time this fixture had been played since Buxton toured the Lake District in the early eighties.

This was Buxton's fourth home fixture in as many weeks, showing strength in depth and a commitment to Buxton's future development.

Despite the difficult playing conditions, both sides started strongly keen to get on the scoreboard with Buxton spending time deep in Ambleside's 22.

However, some brave defensive efforts from Ambleside denied Buxton the opening points. Ambleside, began to exploit Buxton’s lack of guards at the ruck and eventually broke free with some fine offloads resulting in the away side taking the lead midway through the first half.

Buxton responded well, and were now shortening their passes and recycling the ball much quicker thanks to some excellent support play from Jake Stafford.

This in turn led to more pressure on the Ambleside defence as Buxton stepped it up.

Following this entourage of attacks, scrum half Steve Jackson spotted an opening on the blindside and fed Golden who broke clear and cleverly fed the ball Brocklehurst who was just stopped short of the line.

The ball was then recycled quickly and resulted with a try a few phases later as Golden crashed over just before half time, drawing the sides level at the break.

With conditions worsening and Buxton playing into the wind, Buxton came out in the second half with an altered game plan, using good ball carrying skills by Jake Boote to keep in possession.

Strong carries from Burford, Golden and Davis put Buxton in an advantageous position resulting in a try for Burford for a 10-5 lead.

Buxton, now began to grow in confidence, and with the lineout now firing again, saw Tom Barber rise to the heavens to win decent quality lineout ball.

Not only now were Buxton able to expand their game to the wider channels in attack, but their defence was also looking much more assured.

This eventually led to a well worked turnover on halfway line and led to a multi-phase passage of play resulting in Edwards going over for the final try of the match and victory.