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The Gladiators are Dorchester's third team. History of the Gladiators provided by Harry Brewer and extracts from the Team Captain's diaries taken since 1997.

Dorchester Gladiators 51 v 12 Ellingham & Ringwood III

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Despite these teams' respective positions in the league (3rd and 2nd last), Dorchester were optimistic on Thursday evening, with practically an entire pack on the bench, 2 real props (for the first time this season) and a classy set of backs (well most of them). As ever, it was not to last, and 6 locks were whittled down to 2, 2 props to 0, and various other withdrawals due to colds, bathroom fittings etc.

Nevertheless, with 4 hookers and other people who had occasionally(reluctantly) propped, a still classy set of backs, and youth in the back row, despite a diminished bench, things still looked promising; however the visitors' reputation for classy backs of their own preceded them so the outcome was by no means decided.

Although the scoreline ended up being decisive, it never felt that the hosts were having it all their own way. An early dart up the left wing to score by Gareth Biddle was countered by the visitors scoring near the posts and converting. Play stayed at 5-7 for some time, with Dorchester conceding penalties and eventually losing a man to the bin for repeated offsides. Fortunately the unequal period ended with no change to the scores, and shortly afterwards pressure in the visitors' 22 led to the last opposition man looking for a pass, when a cheeky call from Callum King in his first senior game drew a perfect ball, which he duly ran under the posts.

Next in was John Bowden, following good support and offloads, and then a ruck on the visitors' line gave John a simple pick-up and dot-downfor his second as the defenders were outnumbered. The final whistle for the half went with Callum getting his second, set up by robust defence at the base of a ruck from Daniel Congo. The visitors had their own chances, but good tackling ensured they did not get far.

Dorchester seemed to be clearly in the ascendant in the second half. Daniel Congo ran in a superb try from half way off a lineout - not bad for a prop / centre / lock (which is what he was being at the time). A further sin-binning, this time of Dorchester's loosehead, looked like handing an advantage to the visitors, but wing Allan Bickley stepped forward without too much going disastrously wrong. Nico Brookes managed his final try for the team (taking his points total for the season to 22, a target for everyone else). His release from Portland prison is due on Monday, and we all wish him well with his new local club. Newcomers Aaron Seldon at 9 and Haydn Coles at 10 finished off the home scoring.

With 4 minutes to go, and while one of their players was in the bin, the visitors issued a warning to other teams, that they would not give up, capitalising on a poor response by the Gladiators to the kick off, gaining a penalty around 7 metres out, and then finding the gaps to score a consolation try from the tap. To be fair this was a deserved score for the visitors who had maintained their effort and composure throughout.

Lessons for Dorchester from this game are that if they can get good possession they can run riot through the opposition. With real props becoming available, more possession is a distinct possibility, even against the large packs of teams like league leaders Frome (next week's opposition) and Wimborne, so more upsets are being targeted. We hope.