OWs off to a winning start

Walcountians were missing both first-choice wingers in Marvin Fletcher-Rogers and Dharshan Vadivelu and prop Jonny Evans, but had replacements with 1xt XV experience in Ed Bellringer, normally a flanker, Tom McMullen and James Ford.

Both teams were evenly matched in the forwards and Walcountians were indebted to Rob Fleming, Remy Claustres and Ollie Dodwell, the last-named playing his first match for the Old Boys for two seasons, for their industry in taking the game to the visitors. The difference between the two sides lay in the backlines. Kingston were unable to break down a watertight Walcountians defence whereas the Old Boys had pace in abundance and the ability to ruthlessly finish any half-chance that came their way.

After a tightly-fought opening ten minutes, it was the Old Boys who opened the scoring as towering No8 Ollie Dodwell wrong-footed the Kingston defence with a dummy that any back would have been proud of and strode in for a try which centre Ross Norton converted.

Dodwell had a hand in Walcountians’ second try in the 17th minute when he put in a thumping tackle that dislodged the ball and allowed Ross Norton to collect it and chip the ball over the Kingston defence to run in for a try which he converted himself.

Norton was narrowly off target with a penalty in the 25th minute awarded after a late tackle on Walcountians scrum-half Seb Chmielinski.
The visitors got on the scoresheet in the 36th minute when their inside-centre wriggled his way over from a maul on the Walcountians line.

Just before the break, much extended because of a concussive injury to one of the Kingston locks, Walcountians ran in their third try. Once again, Ollie Dodwell had a hand in it by offloading to winger Ed Bellringer to go over but it proved a phyrric victory for the big No8 who suffered a recurrence of an ankle injury and had to leave the field. Callum Rees, son of the Old Walcountians coach Dave Rees, replaced him.

Walcountians kept up the pressure in the second half and extended their lead after just six minutes when the ball was swept to the left across the threequarter line and winger Dany Abou-Zeid impressively rode an attempted cover tackle from his opposite number to touch down. A towering conversion from the touchline by Ross Norton took the Old Boys up to 26 points.

Kingston managed to play themselves back into the game and had a 10-minute spell when they looked like narrowing Walcountians’ lead. However, rock-solid defensive tackling by Walcountians kept them at bay and, when the Old Boys regained the initiative, they ran in their fifth try which came from broken play. Winger Ed Bellringer snapped up loose ball and used his blistering pace to burn off the Kingston defensive cover and touch down.
Walcountians continued to strive for further scores and were rewarded in the 35th minute when prop Remy Claustres drove over for a try from short range after breaking to the right of a ruck formed on the Kingston tryline.

Kingston got a deserved second try in the fourth minute of stoppage time when their right winger crossed to the other wing and moved clear of the Walcountians defensive cover to take a pass and run in.

The bonus points awarded for the victory have put Walcountians top of Surrey League 1 after the first weekend of matches. Next Saturday, they take on local rivals Chipstead at Clock House, kicking off at 3pm.

Old Walcountians:- Bentley, Bellringer, Norton, McMullen, Abou-Zeid, Wrightson, Chmielinski, Ford, Fleming, Claustres, Thornton, Thomas, Lawrence, Henderson, Dodwell.

Subs:- Bateman, Harris, Rees.