Hastings & Bexhill III 38 Maidstone V 20

In balmy conditions Hastings & Bexhill 3rd XV got their league season off to a flying start with the usual hard fought victory over a Maidstone side that turned up with 23 players.

Hastings, despite missing 7 key players, started off at an amazing pace. The forwards pressurised the Maidstone scrum and lineout and created very quick ball for the backswho were marshalled by the excellent Stuart Gow at scrum half.

Within the first 20 minutes H&B had taken a 21 point lead. Peter Eames scored first after a great break by centre Richard Lawless. Robbie Simmonds then chipped in with a try from a trademark silky break from the ruck. Finally flanker Karl Bramwell added third from a quick tap penalty. Alex Nicholls added all 3 conversions.

H&B seemed to take their foot of the accelerator for the remainder of the first half and, as expected, the much fitter Maidstone team came back into the game, primarily on the back of their very big number 13, and the pressure told as he broke several tackles to touch down ,the conversion was missed.

Hastings kept going and nearly scored again when Ben Davis, making his third team debut showed his skills, honed in the first XV, to break through several tackles. Unfortunately he had no support so the chance was lost.

Maidstone scored again just before the break from a backs move which their winger finished off in the corner to make the half time score 21- 10.

Injuries and fatigue were beginning to take its toll on H&B as Robbie Simmonds and Terry Dorey had to leave the field with calf and ankle injuries respectively. Nick Webb and Steve Hill made their debuts, the latter having never played a game of Rugby in his life and he showed some potential at flanker.

The second half began like the end of the first with Maidstone creating all the pressure and H&B manfully defending their goal line. Unfortunately the defence finally succumbed and Maidstone got a push over try, again the conversion was missed.

It is to the credit of the team that this setback seemed to galvanise them and after some great breaks from the forwards, led by the evergreen Chris Brooks, the ball was shipped to the backs and a great switch move between Eames at fly half and Matt Bumpass resulted in the latter cruising over for a touchdown under the posts. Again Alex Nicholls added the extras.

Hastings then scored again as Alan (raging bull) Duggan sprinted a full 30 metres and managed to touchdown before collapsing.

Maidstone were not finished and with 10 mins to go their scrum half nipped from the back of the scrum to score what was to be their last try.

With five minutes to go Alex Nicholls capped of a fine performance with a breakaway try down the wing to finish the game.

It would be wrong to pick an individual as man of the match so the honour goes to the whole team.