OLD GRAVESENDIANS II 29  HASTINGS & BEXHILL III 41

With Gravesend being the hottest place in the UK on Saturday (29.9 degrees) the 13 players of Hastings knew that they were going to have their work cut out to get a result.

Hastings had a simple game plan of keeping the ball tight as OGs pack was considerably smaller and their backs were very young. 

This plan paid dividends 10 mins in when from a maul Terry Dorey peeled of the back and committed 2 tacklers before off loading to Chris Brookes to rumble over in the left corner. Alex Nicholls added the conversion.

Flanker Chris Jarvis, returning from injury, then took centre stage with some great takes in the line out and from a ball off the top scrum half Peter Eames made a dart through the line and 5 metres out offloaded to the supporting Jarvis who touched down. Nicholls hit the upright with his kick to keep the score at 12 -0.

OGs realising that their only hope was to try and get the ball wide to their young back line, where they outnumbered our valiant back line by 2 players, managed to do this and their winger outpaced Dave Hirst to score, the conversion was missed.

To try and give the forwards some respite in the heat Hastings started to utilize the backs they did have, and last minute step in Malcolm Johnson, who had not played since he was at school in Zimbabwe, showed an amazing turn of speed and movement and ran nearly the whole length of the pitch only to fall 10 metres short of the line, he managed to set the ball up for the pursuing Eames who picked up and offloaded to the 2nd support player Jarvis who finished the job. The conversion was missed.

OGs bounced back with a try of their own shortly before half time to make the score at the break 17-10 to Hastings.
 
With no replacements and the heat beginning to take its toll a major effort was needed to keep Hastings in the game and the team did not disappoint, especially the pack. Phil Thornborough and Terry Dorey made some impressive breaks ably supported by Joe Ward and Roger Kingsto .

Joe ward scored next after a rolling maul had made half the length of the pitch and he dotted down unmolested to score in the right hand corner. Eames took over the kicking duties and added the extra 2 from wide out.

OGss did not give up and scored again as their young scrum half slipped through several tackles to touch down under the posts.

With 20 minutes to go Hastings effectively finished the game as the impressive Johnson took a pass from Eames on the blind side and scorched pass the opposition winger and full back to score a great individual try, Eames converting.

OGs despite having a full squad seemed to lose heart and from a Hastings line out that had worked perfectly all day, thanks to the excellent throwing of Brookes and catching of Jarvis, prop Terry Dorey  bundled over to get a  well-deserved try with the last play of the game.

A special mention must be made to young colt Scott Hopkins who showed what a good player he will be with some great tackles even though the lack of backs meant he was unable to show his attacking prowess.  
 
The Captain would like to send a big thank you to all the players that turned up and produced, taking into account the circumstances, one of the best 3rd team performances he had seen.

Man of the Match was  the whole pack with a special “big up” to the front 3 of Brooks, Dorey and Thornborough.