Double delight for Heathfield RFC – Lewes suffer narrow loss to Ditchling

Heathfield Men 12 Dover 7

Heathfield enjoyed a good weekend with both the men and women beating Kent teams in their respective leagues.

On Saturday the mens’ team had a hard-earned 12-7 win over Dover in the Counties 1 Kent league.

Heathfield played into the strong breeze but had the better of the half scoring two tries.

After ten minutes Dylan Eames muscled his way over from short range, converted by Toby Simpson. Heathfield were mostly in the visitors’ half but surprisingly Dover rarely kicked with the wind to ease pressure.

On the one occasion Dover neared the home 22, Heathfield counterattacked with their best rugby on the day with an all-team handling move that ended with Tom Cornwall crashing over in the right hand corner.

With a half time score of 12-0 and the wind to come in their favour Heathfield will have been optimistic of claiming a good win. In the event Dover also did very well against the wind. After 15 minutes they worked a big forward over for a good try.

Most of the rest of the game was in midfield and well-organised defences were in control. Heathfield were happy with the win and Dover at least earned a losing bonus point. The result leaves Heathfield just behind Dover in the table.

Heathfield Ladies 25 Tonbridge Juddians Ladies 0

On Sunday Heathfield Ladies eventually collected a five try win over Tonbridge Juddian Ladies. Heavy rain before the game made unpleasant conditions for the warmups. The rain eventually eased but the pitch and players were very wet so handling was always a problem.

Heathfield’s first try came after ten minutes from a turnover and good hands allowed Megan Baker to score. Throughout the game Georgia Reed-Davies and Amber Lovick made impressive yards ball in hand to keep Heathfield on the front foot.

In the second half Heathfield continued to be in control and gradually the tries started coming. The first was the result of good handling by several players with Holly Brooks claiming the points.

Then entering the last quarter Brooks scored a fine individual try with notable pace in the poor conditions. Soon afterwards Caitlin Flower exploited another good run by Brooks for the fourth try.

Finally Lovick scored a long distance solo try as tired defensive legs could not contain her.

This weekend both teams are away in their next league games. The men travel to neighbours Crowborough (16 Dec 2pm) while the Ladies fly to Guernsey (17 Dec 2pm).

Lewes 13 Ditchling 15

The vice presidents of Lewes Rugby Club were entertained by a splendid lunch, which was followed by an enthralling game with Ditchling.

The heavy rain of recent days had left the main pitches west of the clubhouse completely unplayable, but the wisdom a few years back of marking out a pitch and putting up posts on the higher ground of the minis area proved invaluable as it was possible to play the game there.

This pitch is smaller, but both teams soon adapted to their surroundings and Lewes were the first to create pressure in the opponents’ half.

However, Ditchling were able to take advantage of playing with the wind at their backs, and created space to score the first try.

Lewes fought back strongly and deservedly got back into the game when Feargus Gage got over the line for a well-taken try after his fellow forwards had exerted real pressure on the Ditchling line.

The try was converted by Gus Taylor which gave Lewes a 7-5 .

However, this lead was rather short-lived as Ditchling struck back immediately with a try on the stroke of half- time that made the half-time score 7-10. Worse was to come for Lewes as accumulated injuries in the three-quarter line meant Jude Littlechild, Carwyn Harris and Will Feltham were not able to reappear in the second half.

With Lewes preoccupied with organising a patched up back line, Ditchling sprung once again for their third try at the beginning of the second half. Facing an eight-point deficit, Lewes put everything into breaking through a stubborn defence.

The arrears were reduced by a couple of Gus Taylor penalty goals, but by the time the final whistle was blown, there were still two points to make up.

The 15-13 win takes Ditchling to the top of the table, though they have played a game more than nearest rivals Lewes, who had to settle for a losing bonus point remain in fifth place but will look to improve on this when they take on Steyning and Barns Green next month, both of whom they have already beaten.