Kentish Express Ashford & District
Leaders march on at the top
Ashford’s victory at King’s College Hospital on Saturday saw the leaders open up a eightpoint gap at the top of Kent 1.
Following the Christmas break, the league programme re-opened with a fascinating double header involving the top four teams.
Leaders Ashford headed for Dulwich in south east London to take on fourth placed King’s College while secondplaced Gillingham Anchorians travelled to third-placed Old Gravesendians.
King’s College have a reputation for being unpredictable, but on their day can inflict severe damage on any side courtesy of a creative back division.
Against that backdrop, Ashford prepared for their first league game in 2019 aware of the threat to their 100% record.
The team’s preparations for the game were disrupted by the late withdrawal of vice-captain Callum Stuckey, with Logan Chandler coming off the bench to take his place.
The opening exchanges were fast and furious. Ashford had the lion’s share of possession that they used to launch a series of thrusts into the Kings 22, where a lack of precision and patience combined to thwart their efforts and when possession was lost the home side provided early evidence of their capacity to counter-attack to good effect.
The opening score of the game fell to the visitors after 10 minutes, when a drive upfield was rounded off by a strong run by hooker Charlie Norman who brushed aside the King’s defence to open Ashford’s account.
Will Alkin’s conversion gave the visitors a 7-0 lead.
The following 15 minutes served up more of the same, with Ashford looking capable of adding to their tally, but King’s evened the scores on 25 minutes when a counter-attack from their own half allied to some slack tackling by the visitors created the opportunity to score a converted try.
Stung by this reverse, Ashford spent the majority of the following 15 minutes in the King’s half, exerting pressure that led to two scores before the break.
Both followed a similar pattern, with the home side conceding penalties that were kicked to the corner, and from the ensuing lineouts, the Ashford forwards outmuscled the home defence to score.
The first came from Chandler and the second from Jamie Farris. With Alkin adding one conversion, the game reached half-time with Ashford enjoying a 19-7 advantage.
Against other teams this season, Ashford have suffered a dip in performance in the third quarter and conceded points.
King’s started the half with renewed vigour and launched a number of attacks that were broken by an Ashford side that had regained its Scrooge-like defensive tendencies.
The game saw play move from end to end with both teams seeking to create an opening but with defences to the fore the score remained unchanged on the hour.
As the game entered the final quarter, Ashford were only too well aware that conceding a score would allow King’s back into the game and an uncomfortable close to the game.
Instead, they upped their game, dominated possession and in the 65th minute an attack on the right saw good handling skills from the Ashford back row that created a yard of space for Farai Myezwa. He accelerated outside his opposite number and cut back inside the despairing cover defence to touch down for Ashford’s fourth try, securing a bonus point, and making Alkin’s task of converting easier.
Late substitutions bringing Tom Perkins and Aaron Bowes into play allowed Ashford to raise the tempo in the closing minutes, and but for an unfortunate forward pass the latter would have scored the fifth try two minutes after his arrival.
The visitors then closed down the game, holding onto their lead and running out comfortable winners.
The joy at winning on Saturday was enhanced when news of the other top-four fixture filtered through, Old Gravesendians securing a narrow 17-15 win over Gillingham Anchorians that widened Ashford’s lead at the top.
This month there are league games against Foots Cray at home and Whitstable away before a run of three games (Reeds Weybridge away in the RFU Junior Vase), Old Gravesendians at home and Gillingham Anchorians away that are likely to define Ashford’s season.
Captain Chris Baker said: “We have an interesting few weeks ahead and today’s win against difficult opponents was the best possible way to start 2019.
“Now we build towards our next challenge, securing a good home win against Foots Cray. We played well in the reverse fixture, but we will take nothing for granted.” Ashford: Chris Baker, Farai Myezwa, Charlie Colman, Danny Bushell, Rhys Fussell, Will Alkin, Ben Gray, Logan Chandler, Jamie Farris, Ben Knight, Lewis Remington, Adam Knight, JoffWellard, Charlie Norman, Marc Huxted. Replacements: Tom Perkins, Aaron Bowes