Hastings and Bexhill 2nd team travelled to Crowborough for what was always going to be a tough game. This wasn't helped by the fact that for the second week running they lined up with a depleted squad with many people out of position. What followed however was an awesome showing of heart, courage, pride for the club and most importantly a team bonding where players are playing for each other.
It was clear from the kick off that Crowborough were going to dominate in the forwards all afternoon and after a long period of pressure camped in the H&B half, Crowborough opened the scoring with a penalty. Disaster struck the visitors half an hour in, when an incident off the ball saw H&B down to 14 men after a sending off. This only spurred H&B to raise their game and a quick tap penalty and sieving run from within his own half saw Milham score a fantastic individual try, converted by Dietericks.
The Second half saw Crowborough through everything at the visitors and last ditch tackles by Woolcott and Dietericks stopped trys being scored on 3 separate occasions. H&B scored 3 more points from a penalty by Dietericks from one of few visits to the oppositions half. Disaster struck again as H&B went down to 13 players when Madigan had to go off injured with just over 20 minutes still to play. The last 20 minutes saw dogged defence and bodies being put on the line to stop Crowborough from scoring again.
An almighty performance by the whole team, notably Matt Pearce who had his best game yet in a blue and white shirt saw H&B walk away with a hard fought victory.
Squad: Granger, Sprinks, Madigan, McManus, Barber, Pearce, Stokes, Casebourne, Hollingsworth, Milham, Woolcott, Kerr, Flook, Osumsami, Dietericks
