Mid Kent & East Sussex Merit Table A
Sevenoaks IV 14 East Peckham 7
This was the long awaited top of the table clash that had been postponed once due to poor weather and the Villagers needed to beat Sevenoaks by a clear 10 points and win their remaining games to have a realistic chance of winning this league. It was a crying shame therefore that injuries and international days conspired to rob them of availability and they turned up with only thirteen men with slim chance.
Given what was at stake Sevenoaks sportingly lent a player and flanker Chris Dixon played so well that he was awarded man of the match. For East Peckham there has possibly not been a harder game or more tackles made in their history. Heads were held high and pride retained, but the end result although bitterly conceded in the very last second was probably a fair reflection of the season and why Peckham have to exercise caution in playing at a higher level where full sides simply must be fielded.
The Villagers withstood an early onslaught and once again flanker James Chalk surprised everyone with a breakaway try from distance converted by fly half Lee Walker. Sevenoaks threw everything into the fray but the cover tackling from Chalk, lock Chris Masters, Dixon and the entire back line of scrum half Marc Wright, Walker, centres Will Russell and Rob Penny, wings Ben Viney and Jamie French (in only his second match) and full back Chris Altomstone tackled like demons. Hooker Chris Reeves even managed a couple of strikes against the head but the Villagers pack inevitably would tire with stand in prop Simon Cathcart playing on bravely in his 50th match for the club. Tunbridge Wells stalwart Simon Parsons also helped out more than effectively following in the footsteps of his father Colin who was a founder member of East Peckham. The final member of the pack lock Andy Bodle almost certainly went from veteran to purple in this heavy, mud-ridden atmosphere.
Sevenoaks equalised with a pushover try which was successfully converted just towards the end of the first half but the floodgates never opened. The second half was a seriously contested stalemate with no quarter spared. It seemed as though East Peckham were heroically holding out for the draw when in the very last second the ball squirted out of the scrum and Sevenoaks’ fly half was put over, the conversion being the last act in this moving encounter.
Next week East Peckham hope at least for a fuller squad away to third placed Gravesend meaning that they will have played three of the top four sides in three weeks.
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