CINQUE PORTS RFC 24   HEATHFIELD &WALDRON RFC 20

Both teams started the game well with strong running and solid defence. Heathfield began to gain the upper hand with enterprising play which sent the ball across the pitch and then back again. This stretched Cinque Ports' defence and Heathfield exploited the inevitable holes. The first try came when Heathfield's backs launched an attack inside Cinque Ports' 22 and went over in the corner. A missed conversion meant the score was 5 – 0.

They soon repeated this with another try coming from a strong straight run through the Cinque Ports players who weren't able to bring him down until he was a few metres from the line. Quick recycling of the ball allowed Heathfield to exploit an overlap. Once again the conversion was missed, the kicker having a bad day. After this Cinque Ports rallied and started to play better, keeping the ball in hand and contesting the rucks well. Penetrating runs by Craig Barningham, Luke Price and Craig Brown put Heathfield under a lot of pressure close to their line but unfortunately they were unable to cross it. During another attack by Cinque Ports an interception meant the Heathfield centre ran the ball deep into the home side's half offloading in the tackle to the winger who ran it in. At this point, despite continued massive efforts by Cinque Ports it looked as though they were destined to fail to score. However Tony Potter came to the rescue forcing his way through and scoring under the posts, converted by Carl Malthouse. This made CPR work harder and Potter crossed the line again only to stumble and drop the ball.

At half time it was 15 – 7 to the visitors but it did look as though Cinque Ports were going to win because Heathfield by this time had fallen off their original pace, the break gave them time to regroup but CPR started the 2nd half strongly and before long Gary Surridge finished off a 4 phase play where the Ports forwards had forced their way into the opposition 22. Once again Malthouse converted and CPR only trailed by 1 point. Heathfield then came back with some very creative play that CPR found very hard to stop. The visitors scored their final unconverted try 20 minutes into the 2nd half but some ill discipline meant a penalty was awarded just outside the Heathfield 22 towards the touchline, a hard kick to get but Malthouse showed the benefit of all his practice to make the score 20 – 17 with 10 minutes to go. Soon after, Robby Fink intercepted the ball on the Heathfield 10m line and evaded 2 tackles to score just right of the posts giving Malthouse an easy chance to get within 4 points of Cinque Ports' top scorer Christian Brandt. The game played out the last few minutes in the same way with both sides trying really hard to break through but without success. It ended 24 – 20 to Cinque Ports. Craig Barningham was named man of the match for his tough running from the back of the scrum and in open play that set up so many attacking opportunities for CPR.

Coach Bill Langley said ''It was an excellent performance which typifies the Cinque Ports spirit, the lads never gave up and achieved a much deserved win.''

Team: Terry Doorey, Mark Wright, Mark Anderson, Wayne Dedman, Dean Dedman, Craig Brown, Dale Whittington, Chris Eastwood, Greg Stokes, Luke Price, Tony Potter, Gary Surridge, Mike Dangerfield, Carl Malthouse, Robby Fink, Glen Stone