28/11/09 v Ayelsord V Lost 20 - 29

"Wave of unavailability dents hopes of 3rd XV"

Hastings and Bexhill thirds were narrowly beaten in a clash of arguably the strongest two teams in the Mid-Kent and East Sussex League C.

The wave of unavailability within the club hit the thirds for the first time this season as they travelled without a recognised hooker or number eight with Brian McNeilly out injured.

However, they did welcome back Ben Arnold at inside centre and gave a debut to James Morris at fly-half to replace the absent Micky Ellis, picking up at takeaway in Shanghai and eating out.

H&B started brightly and scored from almost the play of the game via a great scissor move in backfield which created a huge hole in the Ayelsford defence for Arnold to touch down.

The visitors scored again when the forwards formed a good rolling and slick hands from the backs created an opening wide out for winger Alex Waring to outpace the home defence and score in the corner.

As expected Aylesford did not give up after these early setbacks and scored a try of their own via a powerful full-back who broke several lose tackles on his way to the tryline.

With half time approaching young Morris broke some tackles in midfield and passed to Arnold who barrelled over for his second try to put H&B 15 - 5 ahead at the turnaround despite Peter Eames missing all three conversion attempts.

Aylesford's powerful forwards started to push the H&B pack around (unheard of as a rule), however, in the second half to the degree that the visitors did not win a single scrum during the closing 40 minutes.

As a result, H&B started to concede penalties and inevitably two of these resulted in pushover tries under the posts despite some valiant goal line tackling from Phil Begg and Arnold.

The introduction by Aylesford of a rather sprightly winger, on loan from Tonbridge Judds who were playing on another pitch, added to H&B's woes as he ran in two further tries against a tiring defence.

With time running out, H&B took a quick tap penalty in the opposition 22 which released skipper Matt Dawes to score in the corner and ensure they picked up the bonus point.

Special mention was made of the performance of James Morris.