RUGBY: No levelling up for H & B
Hastings & Bexhill 7, Westcombe Park II 36
BY PETER KNIGHT
H&B may have been feeling confident in advance of the arrival of last Saturday’s visitors from Orpington, Westcombe Park II, to their Ark Alexandra ground, having beaten them away in the reverse fixture back in December.
But this was clearly a different team. Westcombe Park’s 1st XV currently lead the London & South East Region Premier League (level 5 of the English rugby pyramid) by 14 points – and didn’t have a fixture on Saturday. It was obvious from the kick-off in this game that many of the big strong men in red had experience at a higher level.
H&B have won four of their 17 league fixtures so far this season, and that is to their credit. They have a good but small squad, training twice a week and on many occasions playing out of their skins. Unfortunately against sides like Westcombe Park, Sevenoaks and Canterbury this is not enough. Senior squads have players on the fringes, others coming back from injury, and those coming to the end of their careers, and they all need run-outs. So fixtures for level 8 teams like H&B against level 4 and 5 players are hard tough games, which tend to result in injuries to the lower level players, which may put them out of action for weeks at a time. The squad is then weakened for the games at a more equal level – and then more losses occur.
After 20 minutes play the visitors were 19-0 in the lead, having scored three devastating tries, two of which were converted.
H&B worked hard to contain their opponents and hit back with a great try from man-of-the-match Calvin Crosby-Clark. The second row forward received the ball in the third phase of a line-out move and crashed over the line. Skipper Bruce Steadman kicked the conversion and the half time score was 19-7.
In the second half the Hastings team matched their opponents well, only conceding two tries, until a third was touched down in the last minute to make a final score of 36-7 which rather flattered the victors.
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