HARWICH AND DOVERCOURT II 102

CLACTON II 0

Eastern Counties League

division three (south)

HARWICH'S second string produced a mammoth performance, putting over a century on the board for no reply.

The home squad was bolstered with the first appearance of the season for Craig Wilson, who put in a man-of-the-match performance which included 11 try conversions as he donned the number ten shirt and controlled the game.

Harwich also saw the welcome return of Iron Man trio Joe Francis, Dean Splarn and Guy Harris, who stepped away from rugby last season to concentrate efforts on the endurance sport and charity fundraising.

Newcomers to the sport Dave Warren and Lee Durrant stepped out for their first competitive game in a Harwich shirt to put all their close-season training to the test and both gave a good account of themselves.

The game was dominated by Harwich right from the off, with their big experienced forwards exerting their dominance.

It wasn’t long before captain on the day and birthday boy Mark Sander-Crook broke from the back of a driving maul to touchdown for the first of a 16-try haul for the day.

The home side put on a display of open, flowing rugby, to the delight of a large home crowd.

It was a performance which produced ten individual try scorers, including three each for Kyle Hutchins and Lewis Kerley as well as tries for Francis, Ryan Boyne, Richard Miller, Joe Sciberas, Splarn, Harley Hema and veteran lock Mike Cowley.

Despite the miss-match, the young Clacton side demonstrated great character and determination throughout the game and contested to the end against much older and more seasoned opposition.

Harwich will now be without flanker Simon Pitham for some time as he was forced to leave the field with a suspected broken rib.

He will be missed by his back row partner Sean Mills senior and the rest of the team.

Team: M Sanders-Crook, A Hannon, H Hema, M Cowley, S Pitham, S Mills Snr, J Sciberas, R Miller, K Hutchins, C Wilson, R Boyne, G Williams, J Edwards, D Warren, J Francis, G Harris, D Splarn, L Durrant, S Woodley, J Schut, R Kemp, L Kerley.

Tomorrow, Harwich are away to Bury St Edmunds (3pm).