Injuries to Gray, Papworth, Hall, McKee and Weeks meant that Dave Dorton had to take the role at fly-half, Tony Whitehead came in at full-back and Scott Curley on the wing, while Jon Luck had his first league appearance of the season at hooker.
Referee Alex Manley stamped his control on the game early on to ensure the physical encounter of the forwards was kept in line with the laws.
Whatever else is said about this encounter, for the neutral observer it was an experience of good hard solid rugby which kept the spectators engaged throughout. Both XVs entertained with their exceptional play for a full eighty minutes.
Letting no infringements of the laws go unpunished, Gravesend were awarded three penalties in nine minutes as the home forwards were caught off-side.
Each time it was good pressure from the Gs pack that forced Ampthill to defend near their ten metre line and in turn get caught infringing.
Dave Dorton in only his second appearance, following injury at the start of the season, punished all three as he put Gs ahead, 0-9 after as many minutes.
Playing against the low winter sun, Gs proved their abilities as they safely took the high kicks, to set up counter attacks.
Thirteen minutes played and it was Gs turn to get pinged as they were caught in front of the back foot.
Chris Anderson pulled the score back with his successful kick and added a second on thirty-four minutes for 6-9.
Gravesend continued to take the game to the home XV and against a seriously larger set of forwards, Gs pack excelled as Forsyth, Stevens and Thompson took the play forward.
Nathan Lines who not only held his own in the front row, but added his strength and abilities to the back-row as he had another huge game for the full eighty.
Jon Luck had to leave the field to have a torn ear sewn up to be replaced by Sam Brice for the remaining eight minutes of the first half.
As the game was taken inside the home twenty two, Phil Thompson broke forward and with Jon Clement close at hand the latter crossed for the try.
Dorton added the conversion before putting over another successful penalty kick for a 6-19 advantage.
With play running into injury time, killing of the ball saw Sox Stevens receive a yellow card for ten minutes in the sin bin.
From the resulting penalty it looked briefly that Gs had survived until Paul Boston burst through on the angle to score by the posts. Anderson converted to narrow the difference to 13-19 at the break.
Jon Luck returned to the fray after the interval following repairs to his ear but Gs were down to fourteen players for the first nine minutes.
With their defence stretched Gs conceded a further try for Boston and one for Terry Cooper with Anderson converting one for 23-19.
Sox Stevens returned to the field on forty-nine minutes, but Tom Goss had to leave the field injured to be replaced by Jamie Gwynne.
Ampthill’s big forwards were proving to be difficult to keep down and it was their turn to put pressure on the visitors inside their twenty-two.
Winning good ball, through Cooper and Sproston, it was scrumhalf Warfield thar gave the final pass out to Jonathan Raven to cross wide out.
A penalty miss by Dorton kept the scores at 28-19, but Gs, back at full strength struck back. Continuous success at the line-out combined with excellent controlled mauling saw Sox Stevens crash over.
Dorton added the points from the tee to narrow the difference to 28-26, with all to play for.
A series of off-side decisions inside Gs twenty-two culminated in Stevens receiving a second yellow card that meant he would have to sit out the rest of the game.
With just over a quarter of the game to play Gravesend had been reduced to fourteen players for the duration. Needless to say that from this position Amptill crossed yet again to move ahead 35-26.
Gravesend forwards put in a huge performance and despite the handicap of a man short, continued to take the game to the home XV.
James Newman came off injured to be replace by Dave Irvine at lock, and with a full twenty minutes to go, a penalty was all that was needed to bring a bonus point Gs way.
Despite the herculean efforts throughout the team, as both forwards and backs put a stop to the home breakouts, these went unrewarded.
Gravesend were playing with courage, conviction, confidence and commitment and their pressure earned them penalty chances in front of the posts, which were spurned as they took their chances from five metre line-outs.
Lessons not learnt from the previous week when with time on the clock points are of the essence, proved to be folly as their braveness of heart overtook their head as they fought for the elusive try when a penalty would have given them the bonus point.
Such was the home team’s desperation to keep their line secure that replacement flanker Stuart Riding was shown the yellow card which evened the playing numbers for the last seven minutes.
Eventually Gs attempted a penalty chance from fifty metres, and as the ball went wide of the uprights it was all too late to get any reward from the game.
If Gs were to perform to this level in every game then they would have been competing for end of season honours, in all today’s playing level must have given them a lot to be proud of.
Next week Gravesend entertain unbeaten league leaders Canterbury, kick off 2.30
Gravesend: Tony Whitehead, Scott Curley, Adam Bishop, Josh Smith, Tom Goss, Dave Dorton, Jon Clement, Jamie Forsyth, Jon Luck, Nathan Lines, Phil Thompson, James Newman, Ziggy Stevens, Reuben Potaka, Sox Stevens. Rep: Sam Brice, Dave Irvine, Jamie Gwynne.
