March Bears suffer title heartbreak with final day defeat to Shelford III in Eastern Counties Greene King Division One West

March Bears’ title aspirations were extinguished on the final day of the season as they slipped to heartbreaking defeat at Shelford.

The Fenland side went into a crunch fixture at the weekend against Shelford III, with the two sides neck-and-neck at the top of the Eastern Counties Greene King Division One West.

The Bears had only lost twice all season, and a victory would have clinched a second consecutive promotion.

But it was heartbreak instead as they fell to a 24-12 defeat on their travels.

The game was nine minutes old when Shelford’s hooker took a very sharp interception and went over under the posts to grab a converted try.

Worse was to follow after 21 minutes when the Shelford inside centre burst through several tackles and went round and under the posts again for another converted try.

But three minutes later, Harvey Davies kick-started what his side hoped would be a fightback by threading through a perfect kick.

It was fumbled twice by the Shelford backs and Lee Kupyn followed up, taking the ball and going over the try line for an unconverted try of his own.

Shelford, though, were making repeated attacks, playing with a slight incline and wind behind them - and despite some valiant defending, eventually the hosts went over for their third. On this occasion, it was also unconverted.

Adam Munro was then shown a yellow card for a high tackle, and though the Bears held out for almost the rest of the first period, Shelford managed to get their fourth and bonus try on the stroke of half-time.

With the Bears 24-5 down at the break, it would have bee a tall order for them to salvage anything from the game.

However, the second half was very different to the first - and that was down to constant attacks by the Bears.

But they found themselves up against a resolute Shelford defence which simply wasn’t for the taking.

Five minutes from time, they finally ceded and Devon Bates blasted through for a try out on the right which was magnificently converted by Sam Howat, leaving the score at 24-12.

It was too little, too late and unfortunately the game finished on that score, leaving March runners-up in a league which they had dominated for such a long period of the season.

However, the club’s coaches insist that the players should be proud of themselves and their efforts considering they had been promoted the previous season.

It was just one step too far to go up a league two years in a row.