Cam Power to another Max against League Pacemakers

On another bright and breezy Saturday we found ourselves literally on the Sussex/Kent border at the very welcoming Tunbridge Wells who, for their sins found themselves, this season playing in South Central so playing teams like Bournemouth and Marlborough rather than South East.
So, following the narrow win last week the black and ambers were keen to maintain their winning habit despite being away at the home of the team in second place. In the event the forward power of the black and ambers particularly at scrum time, in the end proved to be just too much for the Kent side who until today had a 100% record except for a narrow defeat away to Havant.
Cam found themselves kicking off up the slope towards the clubhouse and into a cold breeze and they were soon on the attack when they won a penalty on halfway and Smarty put the kick deep into the home side's 22. From the lineout Mac was almost through but good support saw the black and ambers win the resultant ruck and great hands saw winger Bowers cross for a converted try with less than 3 mins on the clock.
The home side, however were soon on the board when a well organised lineout drive splintered to allow them to bring the scores level on 10 mins.
The restart saw Smarty produce a great up and under and great support by Vic won a pen on the home side 22 which Smarty drilled home and with only 19 mins played Smarty was at it again when the restart was well managed by Hughsey and then Mac and Ray took play again into the TW half to win a pen which was converted and another pen after 22 mins saw the score move to 7-16.

The second quarter saw the home side come back into things with 2 7 pointers following some poor defence by Cam but on the stroke of halftime another great scrum by Cam on TW ball saw Hughsey react quickest when the ball popped out and his charge took play into the TW 22 and when the ball was swung wide we saw great hands put Vic over in the corner and a lead of 21-19 at the break.
The home side certainly came back envigorated for the second half and despite Cam wrecking yet another scrum there was no reward and with just 45 mins played they took the lead again with a converted try.
We then had a bit of deja vu as the Cam pack settled down for the first of what turned out to be quite a lot of scrums on the homeside's 5m line until on 53 mins the relentless pressure saw loose head Raz cross for his debut try and so the black and ambers and with Smarty again successful they had crept into the lead again.
Cam then turned up the heat once more when from the restart Hughsey, majestic as ever was crudely floored while still several feet in the air and the resulting pen saw Smarty again set up his pack for another strength testing session and the first scrum yielded a pen which Smarty slotted and when he struck a superb pen from outside the TW 10m line and 15 from touch the score had now moved to 26-34 with just 1 quarter to play. However despite their forward dominance at set pieces Cam were not able to close the game out and on 75 mins the home side brought themselves back into contention with their 5th try and a lbp however Cam were not to be denied having been thwarted at an attacking lineout when the home side failed to compete and so won a pen the black and ambers, in time added on scored a catch and drive try through Bazza from 10m to claim their tbp and deny their hosts the lbp.

So not the best , most fluent game of the season but against very good opposition the black and ambers always seemed to have enough in the tank to recover from their mistakes but, if they want to be challenging for the League in April they will definitely need to tighten up on their defence, improve their ability to stay in control of the ball and also to understand and adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the officials.

With Murph still not available the front row of Raz, Clarkey and Bazza with support from Lewis were immense and eventually dominated their opposition while the rest of the pack worked incredibly hard to overcome a very physical and well drilled opposition. For the record, DoR Clarkey, who has been called upon to fill some of the shortages in the front row with Murph and Franzel AWOL, was seen today sprinting??? all of 20m as part of the movement which brought Vics try, so we now need him to learn to use his arms and bend lower when he tackles !!!!
The backs had more of a mixed day, so while Smarty's kicking was immaculate they, as a collective did not produce the performance which we have come to expect from them and I'm sure they will be working hard in the week with Laids and Max.
So it it still very close at the top of the table with 2 points covering the top 3 clubs and we have another tough game on Sat when we host Brighton in another must win encounter.

And Finally – well the C&Ws left it late yet again as they pipped The Queens at Castle Grim by a single point in round 1 of the Premiership – with forwards consultant Santi getting a runout for the boys from The Stoop – of course he did miss meeting up with his 3 countrymen (who play for Glawster normally) as they prepare to play in the WC Finals after beating Wales this afternoon.

The pick by Dinger show our DoR on the charge