Saturday 25th Novememer 2006

London League 2 South 

Maidstone  36    Lewes 3

This league match was abandoned after 7l minutes because of bad light, after a serious injury to a Lewes player had held it up for 40 minutes.

Because referee Graeme Charters stopped the match for safety reasons in the fast fading light, with nine minutes still left on his watch, the result had to go before the league officials. However they decided over the weekend to let the result stand

The ankle injury to Lewes flanker Joe Thorpe followed a hard legitimate tackle, resulted in him going to hospital and staying overnight for surgery

Because of the delay in moving the injured player it was decided to move to another pitch.

Until the injury 12 minutes before half time, Lewes who were bottom of the league were undeniably the better side. Their pack were quicker on the ball and generally hungrier for the ball at the breakdown. The number of turnovers Lewes achieved, particularly in the first half illustrated an unusually dull first half performance from Maidstone after the sharpness against Thanet Wanderers.

But their failure to find any sort of a cutting edge in the final third of the field was a major problem. In contrast Maidstone struggled to find any snap and cohesiveness to their play with some poor passing..

The stalemate was broken by a Lewes penalty within five minutes from their full back Neil Rumble. Maidstone’s reply was a try from flanker Fin Davis from a movement started by skipper Martin Arnold

Then came the injury with Lewes still sharper up front.

But early in the second half Maidstone started to get the gremlins out of their system and use their well tutored loose play up front which resulted in a try Steve Mathews after some excellent rucking.

Tries came from Nick Sargent, Scott Mitchell, who followed up his own to race through to score from far out, then excellent tries from centre Jamie Smith and John Wilford for this eventual convincing victory’

Maidstone has a much tougher task this Saturday away in Jersey, when it will be last match for prop Scott McIlroy who is returning home to New Zealand after two valuable seasons for Maidstone     

Maidstone scorers.

Tries:  Fin Davis, Steve Matthews, Nick Sargent, Scott Mitchell  Jamie Smith, John Wilford

Conversions: Craig Whitehead

Maidstone Team:  Martrin Arnold,Harry Stockford, Jamie Smith Scott Mitchell, Mark Ryan, Craig Whitehead, Dave Heads, Scott McIlroy, Tom Rogers, Simon Hollister, Steve Matthews, Andy Bacon, Alexd Smith,Fin Davis, Ben Court. Subs: Rob Jeffrey, Nick Sargent, John Wilford.