Chingford RFC 23 Tunbridge Wells RFC 21

With a thick covering of dark grey cloud and a stiff cold breeze coming across the pitch it was never going to be a comfortable afternoon. The last time these two sides met was in the incredibly close playoff match which led to us being promoted into this league two seasons ago with Chingford following us up at the start of this season.

Wells started brightly putting together a lovely passage of play with the ball going through hands to Richard Webster who went in at pace and scored in the far corner after 2 minutes. Unconverted. 0 – 5 to Wells. Another 7 minutes and Frank Reynolds made no mistake with the penalty, taking it to 0 – 8. From the restart Chingford’s fullback landed awkwardly damaging his knee and leading to a pause in play for some minutes. When play restarted it seemed Chingford were energised and they came back with a powerful attack which led to a score in the corner. 5 – 8. Both sides continued to work hard in the middle of the field but there was no further score for 15 minutes. With Wells conceding too many penalties in the danger zone Chingford took advantage converting two taking the score to 11 – 8 just short of half time. But then with a Chingford infringement around 20m from their line Frank Reynolds kicked a penalty to the corner for a lineout. The ball was successfully spun out to the backs and after a few probing attacks fed out to Ryan Taylor-Dennehy who took it in for the score in the corner on the stroke of half time. 11 – 15.

Chingford started well in the second half and after some sustained pressure the ref determined that Mike Doherty had his hands in the ruck and was sent to the bin for 10 minutes. Chingford capitalised with a try taking the score to 18 – 15. Three minutes later Wells replied with another penalty drawing the scores level. 18 – 18. And ten minutes later, another. 18 – 21. With the light well and truly fading, and the clock moving slowly towards full time Wells found themselves back down to 14 again after further pressure on the Wells line resulted in a yellow for Josh Hawkins. Chingford piled on the pressure and eventually went over for their final try. 23 – 21 Full time.

Head Coach, Simon Whatling, said “Clearly we were all disappointed at the end of the game. Discipline let us down and we weren’t as accurate as we should have been. We go again next week with the arrival of Dorking.”

TWRFC v Dorking RFC Saturday 1st December 2pm.

Bruce Elliott

TUNBRIDGE WELLS 24 CS STAGS 18

This week saw Wells entertain CS Stags 1863 at St Marks on a sunny but chilly Saturday afternoon. CS were promoted last year and had already taken the scalp of Wimbledon, the league leaders, early on in the Season. They sat in 11th spot in the league, one position below Wells, so this game was important for both sides and the game certainly showed this.

Wells started strongly putting CS under pressure from the kick off. Only the final pass going astray or silly errors preventing Wells from scoring. However after 5 minutes CS made a break and Wells were penalised for offside in front of their posts which CS converted, making the score 0-3. Wells fought straight back and after several attacks, they were awarded a penalty which Frank Reynolds converted with ease. Strong running from the backrow of Allen, Hathaway and Doherty finally paid off when Nick Doherty picked up from the base of a ruck and powered over for Wells’ first try, converted by Reynolds. 10-3.

Soon after, on the brink of half time, strong phases of play, with Stu Nicholls hitting Earle in the lineout, Wells scored their second try with George Montgomery skipping his way around the defence to score under the posts. Again converted by Reynolds, taking the score to 17-3. The referee then added another 8 minutes of extra time much to the bemusement of the supporters and players, CS Stags scored a try in the corner in 48th minute taking the half time score to 17-8

Cs started the second half much stronger having been boosted by their extra time try and put Wells under a huge amount of pressure testing the defence of the home side. Wells held strong and it was not long before they were back in attack.

From a lineout on the 22 they caught and drove in a unit and could not be stopped, Dave Allen touching down from a magnificent forward effort. Reynolds again converting to take the score to 24-8.

CS were not going to give up, however, Wells lost prop Ben Williams to an injury and this was a key point in the game. Cs pressurised Wells in the scrum and were finally rewarded with another try which they converted following on with another penalty taking the final score to 24-18.

Wells will be happy with another win under their belts following a disappointing result against Bedford a couple of weeks ago. A great all round performance and a debut appearance from Anthony Storkey at scrum half, who also had an excellent game.

Wells travel to Chingford next week (KO 2 30pm)whom they last played in the promotion play off 2 Seasons ago, coming out victors by 2 points after extra time. Wells will be looking for a further victory on the road as they look to close a 4 point gap to the sides above them.

John Crees

BEDFORD ATHLETIC RFC 35. TUNBRIDGE WELLS RFC. 22

Wells had a day to forget on Saturday as the journey took 4 and a half hours- Dartford tunnel closure- and then despite floodlights the referee insisted on starting the game less than 30 minutes after arrival.

Despite this a relatively unchanged starting line up Carl Straeche for Ben Williams -the only change- started reasonably well with Frank Reynolds kicking the visitors into the lead and then converting a well taken Mike Doherty try in the corner to give a ten point lead in as many minutes.

Things were to get worse from this point on as first Wells lost Richard Murray- replaced by Richard Webster- to a head injury and then lost Max Edmonton to a yellow card which proved pivotal as the Bedford number 14 led a try fest as the home team scored 17 points in the period whilst Edmonton was off. Bedford rounded this off with a further converted try to leave Wells trailing by 25-10 at halftime.

Wells started the second half in better form but without a platform in the tight found it difficult to close the gap as they would have hoped. Player coach Dave Allen got a try on the Board from a line out catch and drive and Richard Webster picked up a well executed try converted by Reynolds. Further disruption though followed as scrum- half Edmonton received what appeared to be a serious ankle injury which caused a further delay to the game whilst he was treated. With this loss of momentum Wells then conceded a further penalty and an unconverted try to kill any chance of bonus points or victory. Little consolation that they took the second half despite the disruption 12-10.

Squad: Crosilla, Nicholls, Straeche, Earle, Josh Hawkins, Hathaway, Allen, N Doherty, Isbell. Edmonton, Reynolds, Murray, Montgomery, Bailey, M Doherty, Caddy, Webster, Taylor- Dennehy.