Match Report this week is by Mr Rick Howe
Photo's By Drew Pratt.

After a two hour 49 mile journey, on a cold wet miserable afternoon, to a muddy patch of grass alongside a gridlocked South Circular Road, Crowborough arrived with a side depleted by the enforced unavailability of several normal starters, for this important London League 2 SE encounter, with fifth placed Old Alleynians, against whom the visitors recorded a narrow 26-24 win early in the season .
For the first 15 minutes OA’s dominated both possession and territory. Under the direction of their annoyingly classy #10, the ball was spread wide ,with inside passes to fast arriving support always testing the resolve and ability of the ‘Boro defence that was not found to be wanting.
With their backs always threatening but unable to finish off promising positions, OA’s resorted to keeping the ball tight, mauling the ball metre by metre into the ‘Boro 22, where after 20 minutes the first score came wide out on the right when ‘Boro just ran out of defenders as the home maul rolled over the line for an unconverted try. 5-0
Crowborough slowly started to get into this match and could have pulled back the deficit when Harrison Chapman intercepted a pass in the centre and with forty metres to go; with Andy Kidd in support, and the defence out of position, the score was a foregone conclusion. Andy Kidd would have taken the final pass cleanly 99 times out of a 100. Unfortunately this was the other one time, and the ball was spilled and the opportunity lost.
However this gave ‘Boro confidence, and continued to compete in the loose and pressure the home side with yet another move down the left being thwarted with the line seemingly begging. Deep in the second quarter OA’s reverted back to their well tried and tested forward domination of the maul and after a penalty had been placed into touch on the ‘Boro 5 metre line the driving maul was moved right closer to the posts before crossing the line for the converted try 12-0.
As half time approached OA’s kept the scoreboard ticking over with a final penalty 15-0, and with Crowborough contemplating what could have been. The Half-time Score was 15-0.
Much of the first half had been punctuated with unpunished indiscretions, from lying on the ball to blatant infringing of the offside line, with several over physical encounters, much of which appeared to be ignored , leading inexcusably, to several off the ball altercations as the official continued to lose the players. Several times the captains were lectured but sanctions were not applied.
Unfortunately the second half continued in this bad tempered mode, as did the liberal interpretation of the laws. It is not too surprising that there was little constructive rugby to warm the slowly freezing feet of the supporters, limited to just an OA’s penalty that took the score to 18-0 with eight minutes of the game left.
The zero in the ‘Boro score column this late in the day, seemed to be the catalyst that they needed. For the rest of the match OA’s were unable to gain any possession, with the ‘Boro eight controlling the ball deep in OA’s 22. With driving maul after driving maul, OA’s defended each drive giving away six penalties in the process, before the official found his stack of cards and brandished yellow to the prop. Without a fit front row replacement the official declared uncontested scrums. Under the new law the #18 was sacrificed reducing the home side to 13 players. With the next scrum, Tom Simmonds slung out a long pass to Rob Lester who crossed the line to record ‘Boros only score of the afternoon. 18-5 FT
With other results going ‘Boro’s way Crowborough remain in 7th position and OA’s retain their hold on fifth. Next week Crowborough take another two hour trip for the first of their two visits, in the remaining to the East Kent Coast taking on 6th placed Thanet Wanderers.
Kick-off 3:00pm