Park are red-hot

11:51am Friday 28th September 2001

Westcombe Park returned from deepest, darkest Gloucester with an away win, having given newly-promoted Cinderford a lesson in concentration, discipline and finishing when they defeated the west country side 30-21 in the National League 3.

It was a victory that was never in doubt, Westcombe Park opened the scoring after the third minutewhich they did not relinquish.

A scrum to Westcombe Park on Cinderford's 22-metre line after three minutes led to a chip and chase for inside centre Ben Thomas to touch-down. Derek Coates converted.

Cinderford scored with a drop-kick to make to reduce the elad to 7-3, but Sykes powered through as Cinderford defence caved in.

Coates narrowly missed a penalty but was on form to convert the second to extend the lead to 10-3.

Westcombe Park then conceded needless penalties, which allowed Cinderford to narrow the gap to 10-9 at the halfway stage.

In the second half, Westcombe Park began as they left off, Coates adding a further penalty after only two minutes as the hungry Combe back-row caught Cinderford in possession.

Two minutes later and it was a repeat of the earlier penalty, when open-sider Hayden O'Neil caught the Cinderford full-back in possession and isolated. Coates duly extended the lead to 16-9.

Cinderford the attempted to attack from a penalty, dropped the ball and debutant Nick Daniels ran the ball under the posts from the half-way line, giving Coates an easy conversion to make it 23-9 to Combe.

From a line-out five metres from the try-line, Hinkins took the ball cleanly, the pack gathered round the ball-carrier and surged towards the line. The ball was then moved to the back for pack-leader Qin Wiseman to burst through to score. Coates converted for a 30-14 lead.

With the game all but over there was time for Cinderford to get a consolation try with the last move of the game. The next home game is October 6, versus Redruth. Kick-off 2.30pm.

Beckenham were unfortunate not to win against promotion hopefuls Gosport & Fareham, narrowly losing 22-21.

They flew out of the blocks and two penalties from centre Brad Ellsworthy gave Beckenham a deserved early lead. But the Beckenham defence let them down and the opposition scored two soft tries. Another Ellsworthy penalty closed the half at 15-9 to Gosport.

Beckenham could not carry their first-half intensity after the start of the second half and another Gosport try seemed to put the game out of reach.

Captain Seb Bryce was rewarded by two tries, but Beckenham could not convert other opportunities to steal a deserved win.

Next week, Beckenham play at Gravesend in the league at 3pm.

Bromley's 1st XV recorded their third straight win of the season with victory in their opening league game against Whitstable at Barnet Wood Road.

The Kent 1 side opened their account with a converted try wide out by Paul Mainwaring.

This was followed by a penalty goal from McCall. Whitstable then came back strongly and narrowed the gap to a single point.

A further try from Mark Keech and another penalty from McCall gave Bromley a 18-7 lead at the interval.

The visitors then conceded several penalties, but Whitstable came back with a further converted try to once again narrow the gap.

Bromley replied with two more penalties by McCall. Whitstable gave away a number of further penalties, while the Bromley defence stood firm to record a good start to their league campaign.

Old Dunstonians opened their London 3 SE League account at Langley Park with a comfortable 31-10 win over Lewes.

Try-scorers were Sam Sackey, Mark Slade, Ashley Reading, Jeremy Scott and Johnnie Bennett, while Slade booted three conversions.

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