After a splendid lunch, generously sponsored by Old Mid of the past, John Parish, and enjoyed by both sets of supporters of these near neighbours and old rivals, the teams took to the field in difficult and blustery conditions. It was a scrappy affair with neither side able to ‘click’ for any length of time.

Warlingham took the lead when Mids were penalised in the scrum after 2 minutes and centre Myles Ward struck a sweet kick across a difficult breeze. Mids scrum half Jake Bacon equalised 2 minutes later when the visitors were offside. There were further opportunities foe the home team to kick penalties but the absence of a specialist kicker was a handicap.

The Warlingham midfield were showing some neat touches, leading to some enterprising running, but these promised more than they achieved. Mark Macaskill made a number of storming runs for Mids to win good field positions and when Warlingham were penalised for arguing he was on hand to take fly half Rowan Newman ’s pass and score after Jake Bacon had set the move up with a quickly taken penalty.

The conversion was missed but Mids held their lead of 8-3 until the interval.

The strong crosswind was in the visitors’ favour in the second half and they kept Mids pinned in their own territory for long periods. They spilled many passes, however, and the home side defended well with Jake Bacon and Rowan Newman prominent. A kick ahead by Warlingham gave an opportunity to the lively John Osborne but he narrowly failed to reach it before the ball went dead.

Eventually the pressure told when Warlingham No.8 Mike Fair went over and was given the try. The grounding was questionable but the vistors’ pressure certainly merited a score. Ward converted to put his side 10-8 in the lead.

Back came Mids and drove deep into the vistors’ 22 on the hour. Warlingham repulsed this attack but they had no answer when Mids broke quickly from a free kick. Second row Cameron Kok made ground and unloaded to prop Nick Hamilton who drew the defence and sent winger David Stanton away with an excellent pass. The Mids veteran, who had an outstanding game in defence as well as attack, staightened the line and centre Temi Okenla had the luxury of crashing over with another man outside if he needed him. Jake Bacon struck a good conversion attempt but it was just short.

Mids now had to defend for long periods but eventually they were penalised for offside and Ward made no mistake to tie the scores at 13-13. The game looked to be set for a draw but Ward had two more chances to win with penalties and, though he missed the first one, he struck the second sweetly to gain a narrow victory for the visitors.

Mids had one final sally and full back Matt Shields made ground on the left wing before putting in a clever cross kick which just bounced the wrong way for Mids and was cleared to safety by a jubilant Warlingham.

Mids are continuing to show more promise and debutants Sam House at flanker and Matt Shields at full back deserve credit for stepping up a level. Nick Hamilton is showing his old class and Mark Dean will be pleased with his efforts in the scrum in the last quarter.