London 3 North/West

Cheshunt missed another opportunity to register points; despite a promising start they were even

denied the losing bonus point with a late penalty.

From the kick off Cheshunt pinned Hitchin deep in their 22, when they finally were able to get their

hands on the ball, the visitors could only clear to halfway, Scott Drew initiated the next attack, quick

ball along the line to Lewis Voicey gave him space to run down the right wing and back into the 22,

the ball was re-cycled quickly and Bobby Bolton went past his man and in under the posts, with

Reece Shoobridge’s conversion Cheshunt had a 7-0 lead after just 4 minutes.

The re-start was fed to Jake Phillips who made a trademark run out of his 22, Cheshunt worked up to

the Hitchin 10 metre line where the move was stopped by a high tackle, unluckily Shoobridge’s long

range effort hit the post and the visitors cleared.

Hitchin began to get into the game, their big pack slowly started to dominate the set piece and they

spent some time in the Cheshunt 22, the line remained intact until the relentless pressure forced

Rob Fairburn offside and he was dispatched to the sin bin, the Hitchin forwards took their chance

and pushed over from a 5 metre scrum to reduce the arrears after 18 minutes to 7-5.

Hitchin were beginning to have the better of the territorial battle, but the Cheshunt defence had

held firm and when they tried to force a move, Marvin Brown was quick to intercept, he was caught

and the Cheshunt support couldn’t get their hands on the ball quickly enough and the brief chance

went begging.

As soon as Hitchin were back in the Cheshunt half, they took the lead with a well struck penalty.

Play became fairly scrappy, neither side able to string together phases, until suddenly Hitchin

spotted some space down the right wing, the speedy winger cut inside to race nearer the posts, but

a missed conversion kept the lead to 6 points.

The visitors finished the half on top, after some heroic Cheshunt defending, the clearance kick was

fielded by the right winger, a nicely weighted cross field kick nearly put the left winger in the corner,

but he couldn’t help putting a foot in touch. Cheshunt got turned over at the lineout, quick ball along

the line saw the right winger cross for his brace, with the last move of the half, this time the

conversion was successful and the teams went into the break 7-20.

Neither side were able to threaten very much at the start of the second period, Hitchin missed a

penalty after 10 minutes, but most of the play was around the halfway mark, until, for the first time

the Cheshunt pack suddenly shoved the Hitchin scrum backwards just inside their half, as the ball

squirted out the back, Louis Mulholland caught his opposite number napping and stole the ball and

raced to the line, more extras from Shoobridge pulled C’s back to 14 – 20, with 25 minutes left on

the clock.

Sensing an opportunity the Cheshunt side were soon back in the Hitchin 22 after a couple of

penalties allowed them to kick down the line, they rather let the visitors off the hook and when they

infringed at the breakdown on the 22 and Hitchin cleared down field.

Most of the remainder of the match was played in the Cheshunt half and although the visitors

searched for the bonus point try, the Cheshunt defence again held firm, but the visitors were able to

knock over a penalty which stretched them out to a 9 point advantage.

Cheshunt will hope that their extensive injury list begins to shrink for their tough match next week,

when they welcome unbeaten Hackney to Andrews Lane.