Narrow defeat for Gravesend's fourth team

When Gravesend turned up to Tunbridge Wells on a miserable January afternoon to find that their changing room was locked there was a moment where consensus was almost reached to head back to Gravesend and avoid an afternoon of rolling around in the freezing cold mud.
As can be expected, good sense did not prevail and 13 brave, hardy souls took to the pitch (pool) to begin their warm ups waiting for the rest of the team to turn up.
Despite attempts to tear a member or two of the third team away from their potentially league deciding fixture further up the hill, the first 10 minutes of the match saw Gravesend take the challenge to the opposition with 13 men. Fortunately Brian Rayner was foolish enough to bring his kit down to watch his son and offered to step in to help out to bring the side up to 14 players after about 10 minutes. By this point Gravesend were already 7-3 up thanks to the commitment and determination of Steve Wootton, capitalising on mistakes in the TWs backline to score near the corner.
At some point during the first half James "Jetski" Kurszewski managed to work out which way to hold up his sat nav to join us for the remainder of the match.
The pattern for the first half had been set up by this point with good ball carrying from Tunbridge Wells meeting steady defence from the Gravesend team. The conditions made ball handling a particular challenge meaning that the match saw a number of scrums, controlled well from a Gravesend perspective by the pack, with special mention going to Harry Redsell who needed to leave the field just before half time before managing to return to the pitch to help out his team mates.
Gravesend's second try came from a penalty move from about 10 metres out, which the unaware may have mistaken for a planned move. A dummy switch with H followed by a switch pass to Darius who barged over a couple of defenders to score beneath the posts.
At half time the score was 28-14 with Tunbridge Wells scoring 4 tries and 2 penalties, to two converted tries to Gravesend.
Without any replacements to call upon there was not much to do at half time for Gravesend except to remind ourselves that we were still in with a shout of achieving something from our Saturday afternoon's rugby.
Both teams traded scores in the second half in a similar pattern to the first, with scrums punctuating the occasional break, kick or maul. Gravesend's first try of the second half came courtesy of our tall Lithuanian. Darius managed to steal a Tunbridge Wells lineout in front of the lifted opposition jumper before managing to wade his way through the puddles to the tryline over a few opposition defenders to score under the posts again.
Following another score by Tunbridge Wells Darius managed to regain the ball from the kick off and proceed to score in the corner.
The final points of the game came following good running and support play from the backs, before a maul was held up over the line by the Tunbridge Wells defence. The ball escaped from the side of the resulting scrum allowing Ben Baker to pick the ball up and score under the posts. The conversion was missed when the puddle beside the ball turned out to be deeper than expected.
There was still time for Tunbridge Wells to have another penalty attempt but this was missed to the side of the posts and a few phases later the game was over.
While the 3 tries from Darius might point him out as the man of match, it would not be fair to focus on this performance without also commending the performance of the other 14 players on the team and the committed supporters who stood beside the pitch in the rain, snow and freezing cold to cheer us on. Particular mention also goes to Brian Rayner who was as reliable as ever at full back, with accurate kicking and a side step for the highlight reels and to Vid whose defence in midfield ensured that many a break was thwarted. The whole pack also deserve praise for their performance in the scrums and around the park by never taking a backwards step against a larger opposition.
Once again the Gannets showed the strength of their spirit by putting in a performance of which they can be proud against a good Tunbridge Wells side. Next week attention turns to the local derby against Old Gravesendians. With a performance as committed as this the team can be hopeful of making more of impression against their rivals than earlier in the season and of continuing to build upon the good results already achieved this year.