Hastings & Bexhill 10 Dartfordians 15

31st March 2012 Kent 1 League match

With a possibility of being runners up in Kent 1 Darts had a difficult fixture away at Hastings & Bexhill who after a slow start to their first season in the league had found enough form to challenge Darts for 3rd place and having lost the corresponding home fixture Darts had to be on top form to gain the points. On a cloudy and windy day Darts received the kickoff and drove into the Hastings oncoming forwards only to concede a penalty which was fortunately missed due to the gusting wind. This was really the only threat to darts in an excellent first half where the visitors really took the game by the scruff of the neck. In all the contact areas Darts were the superior team and they won turnover ball time and time again and looked very threatening moving the ball wide. Hastings were struggling to keep up with Darts and Joe Bowmer in the centre stole ball from Hastings in the tackle to keep the home team on the back foot. Hastings had to resort to slowing the ball down and were fortunate not to see a yellow card when committing two offences in the red zone. Darts continued to press and finally a fine move saw the ball moved wide to tom peryer who showed his pace and scored in the corner. Darts were pretty much in complete control in every area except for the lineout where the home team competed excellently and won 75% of Darts own ball which was the main reason why the score stayed tight. Darts kept pressing and having moved the Hastings defence about the field finally increased their lead when Joe Bowmer crashed over onto the post. Mike Briggs converted. Darts never allowed Hastings to settle and the impressive back row of Vousden, Wheeler and Renno were all over every attack tried by the home team. An infringement at the scrum lead to another penalty for darts which was converted by Mike Briggs to take the score to 15- 0 at half time.

Knowing their own pitch and how to play the wind got Hastings off to a flyer in the 2nd half and for long periods Darts were penned back in their own half and it was clear that the Hastings players had been given a stern talking to at half time. Darts had lost some of their fluency and were rushing things rather than keeping the control of the ball as they had in the first half. Simon Briggs came on for his debut in the back row and was excellent throwing himself into tackle after tackle alongside Joe Wheeler who was everywhere. Alex Vousden despite having a cut eye replaced the injured Dan Coshall at prop and Tyler Roberts on for Chris Nathanael at Hooker. Hastings were trying everything but the Darts defence was holding firm and still turning over some home team ball but from a scrum Hastings cleverly wheeled and opened up the blind side to enable their winger to go over in the corner. Darts were really having to work hard to keep Hastings at bay who had a lot ball but were not really looking as though they would penetrate the Darts defensive set up and got frustrated and gave away too many penalties which allowed Darts to clear their lines. With 10 minutes to go Hastings did score a try in the corner when their winger looked suspiciously as though he had been tackled into touch. With the score at 15-10 the game could have gone either way however Darts managed to get control again and move into the Hastings half. Darts could have put the match to bed when tom peryer had a blistering run down the wing only to tackled brilliantly by the full back who had also made a number of telling tackles in the first half. Darts did have a penalty kick at goal which would have stretched their lead to 8 points but the wind again stopped the score.
Darts probably deserved to win the match on the basis of their excellent first half performance and their controlled defence I the second and this went some way to avenge the defeat at Bourne Rd earlier in the season by the home team. Man of the match was Joe Bowmer who had an excellent all round match and used his experience to organize the defensive patterns. With Easter looming the next match is at home to Beccehamians on the 14th April.