Maidstone 3rd XV 24  Gravesend 3rd XV 14  

In another tight and bruising encounter, a hard fought victory was won, despite trying to give the game to our opponents. Playing against all the elements in the first half Maidstone made a good start, securing a penalty by Dave Charlton. The score should have been added to when Jacques Vrey crashed over from a driving maul, but unbelievably the referee did not award it, instead sending one of the Maidstone players to the sin bin. Despite this, the forwards continued to dominate, but time and again after good build up play, a mistake would give possion back to Gravesend. Eventually, Jacques did get his moment, following a catch and drive at the lineout, when he barged over and this time the referee had to give it. Maidstone looked to be well in control of the game , when a series of poor tackles let the Gravesend centre in under the posts on the stroke of half time, and all of a sudden it was game on. In the second half maidstone should have dominated, playing down the hill, but too many kicks went dead, bringing the game back 50 or 60 metres each time. Finally, Maidstone did apply some pressure and a series of 5 metre scrums led to a pushover try by scrum half Shaun Charlton, to give some breathing space and his brother Dave kicked the conversion to make it 17-7. However, soon after Maidstone again failed to clear and a Gravesend back hacked through to score and brought the game to within 3 points, and they were starting to sniff a win. But for a great tackle by full back Gus Parker, Gravesend could have been up, despite all the Maidstone dominance. The game was finally sealed following an incisive break by Dave Charlton and a searing angle by Peter Mattinson saw him go over under the posts untouched. The conversion made a ten point gap and Maidstone managed to avoid further errors to come away with a win. Youngster Charlie Simpson had a terrific game on the blindside, winning good line out ball, carrying the ball well and generally making a nuisance of himself. so that is 3 wins in 4 but the team will have to reduce the error count if they want to continue on their winning run. Having said that, any win at Gravesend is a good one, so well done boys we can work on those errors in the bar. Don't forget the mental imagery this week in preparation for Anchorians.