Harlow 15, Saffron Walden 21 WALDEN improved their chances of avoiding the drop with a narrow win at Harlow on Saturday. Harlow kicked off and were soon on the attack and for the first quarter of an hour they looked the dominant side scoring a penal

Harlow 15, Saffron Walden 21

WALDEN improved their chances of avoiding the drop with a narrow win at Harlow on Saturday.

Harlow kicked off and were soon on the attack and for the first quarter of an hour they looked the dominant side scoring a penalty through Humphreys after eight minutes and then on the 15 minute mark they had a series of five metre scrums and line-outs.

Eventually the pressure told and the Harlow scrum-half Eynon burst through a gap to score wide out taking the score to 8-0.

Finally Walden woke up and started to push the home team back into their half, they pressurised Harlow into making a series of mistakes culminating in fly half Tom Hughes kicking three penalties on the 20th, 25th and 31st minute to put Walden ahead by one point.

Straight from the kick off Harlow worked the ball into the Walden 22 and from a ruck they worked a good move bringing in the loose winger at pace.

He broke through the Walden defence to off load to Hughes who scored under the posts to regain the lead at 15-9.

Walden did not let their heads drop and came back strongly.

In the last play of the half they were attacking Harlow just outside their 22 when Hughes dummied to the centres and broke a couple of tackles and jinked his way towards the line used great power to go through the last line of defence to dive under the posts putting Walden 16-15 ahead at half-time.

Although the second half was a low scoring affair it was still exciting as both teams strived to get past the winning line.

Walden looked strong throughout the half with their pack now dominant in the scrums often pushing the Harlow back several metres and getting the ball against the head.

This domination soon found the visitors camped inside the Harlow 22 and with the referee playing advantage they spun the ball out wide for winger Dave Patch to go round on the overlap to score a well worked try.

In the next 10 minutes Walden should have sewn the match up, had the players been a little more clinical they could have stretched away from Harlow.

The forwards nearly scored when they got the ball across the try line only for it to be grounded on one of their own players. The backs also nearly scored but did not quite get the final pass away.

Harlow came back and scored a penalty when Walden were caught going off their feet at a ruck on the 21st minute getting themselves back to within three points at 21-18.

This set up a close and pulsating last quarter of the match, Walden nearly scored a couple more times but again could not quite finish off the home team,

Harlow also nearly scored in the corner when their backs gained an overlap but despite stretching the winger was still inches short. Walden held firm and started to count the clock down trying to maintain possession.

With three minutes of the half remaining Eynon intercepted a loose pass on the half way line and raced away towards the posts.

Paul Marshall playing at centre chased back and made a match winning tackle two metres from the line.

Walden got back to gain a penalty to clear the lines and minutes later the ref blew the final whistle to the relief of the visiting supporters.

Newmarket III 5, Saffron Scorpions 31

SAFFRON Scorpions marched onto the next round of the Greene King Country Cup competition with a convincing 31-5 win over local rivals Newmarket.

In a scrappy first half the Scorpions greater experience and penetration led to the scoring of two tries.

Ian Lyons opened the scoring with a well worked blind side move and this was followed by a fine solo effort from Ossie Esterhuizen. The dependable Mark Humphries slotted one of the two conversions.

In the second half the Scorpions went into overdrive playing a more controlled game.

Skipper Sean Murphy fed Phil Donahue for a barn storming try after good work by the forwards.

Esterhuizen accepted a cheeky Murphy pass from the scrum to score his second try and Adrian Pierson finished off a well worked move to seal a fine victory. Humphries scored two more conversions.

n Pouring rain failed to drench the spirits as Wendens Ambo Mini Rugby Club entertained local rivals Saffron Walden and Haverhill to a triangular fixture at Friends School last Sunday.

The combined Saffron Walden/Wendens Super-12s squad dominated both games of a double header, the winning scores being 20-0 and 25-0.

In the first match, a hat-trick of tries by Noah Finch, and another by Charlie Kitcat on the wing after some great work by the backs saw off Haverhill convincingly.

In the second match Brandon Bowden crashed over the line for the first try, before Finch added another two.

Dan Rust then put down in the corner after a long cross field kick from Will Clark, before Ben Annis ran through to complete the scoring.

The under-11s also won both their matches, beating Walden and Haverhill

In the under-10s, Haverhill were unable to field a side, so Wendens played a series of matches against Saffron Walden and some

inter-squad games where honours were pretty much even.

The under-nines continued to show great progress, losing narrowly 15-10 to Saffron Walden, before beating Haverhill 35-5 - with William Tetlow and Chris Bogg demonstrating strong running and some committed tackling from the whole squad and Hugo Walford in particular.

In the tag rugby groups, an enjoyable day's rugby saw both the under-sevens and eight enjoying some fast flowing and continuous rugby.

The under-sevens lost to both Saffron Walden and Haverhill, but by very narrow margins.

The team played very well for only their second competitive outing, with some particularly good tries from Harry Underwood and Max Luxford, and Ben Heath taking the coveted player of the week award.