Starting with the wind and the slope in our favour, Wimbledon had the best of the early possession and were pushing Reeds back into their own half. An ill-advised kick into the wind by Reeds went straight to full-back Oli Moulton, who ran the ball straight back at them and evaded several tackles to score in the corner. The blustery conditions made kicking very difficult indeed, so we were now 5-0 up after Cameron narrowly missed the conversion. Reeds came right back at us, but were held up by some excellent committed tackling - in particular from Jon Gallagher, Lucas Strauss and Alex Browning. We were unlucky not to add another try when a good move got the ball out to Elliot Phillips on the right wing, who was then pushed out short of the line. Our next chance was unfortunately wasted when three times in succession the forwards ignored a two-man overlap on the left in favour of driving for the line - eventually resulting in our losing the ball and the try-scoring opportunity. However the next score was ours, when a sloppy pass was intercepted by Matt Shaw who ran 50 yards for a great breakaway try under the posts. This was converted by Cameron Wilkinson - the only successful kick of the game on either side, and which turned out to be critical. 12-0 up.

Reeds were not finished yet, and sustained pressure - combined with some rather poor missed tackles by Wimbledon - let them in for a try. The momentum once again swung back to Wimbledon, and although we never quite re-established our early dominance in the scrums we did display some good rucking - of particular note being the steal by Alex Browning. The ball was quickly shipped out to the right by Matt Shaw to release Lucas Strauss for a try in the corner. We nearly added to the score just before half-time when Oli Moultons excellent run was halted with him lacking support out on the left. However we went in 17-5 up, possibly enough to see us through but by no means a safe cushion with the wind and slope now against us.

Reeds began the second half very strongly, no doubt with the coaches words ringing in their ears. Wimbledon were still half- asleep and the Reeds winger was able to carve through our tackles to score in the corner and bring the score back to 17-10. Keeping the ball in hand (mostly), Wimbledon put together a couple of good moves. The 'backs move' saw the ball shipped all the way out to the right, but every single player was drifting left and running diagonally, so there was no space for us once it reached the wing. We were now camped on their line, but again the move was wasted when the forwards succumbed to 'try line fever' with an overlap outside them. Possession now swung back to Reeds without us having made a score, and we had to work hard to hold them up in our right corner. Pressure told however and another bout of poor tackling let Reeds through to take the score to 17-15. We continued to give away far too many penalties - we may have had our issues with the refs ability to spot offside (well, Mark anyway :) but we had no complaints about the numerous rucking offences we committed. Largely because of this we spent the last 5 minutes of the game mainly on or near our line, some excellent tackling being required - of particular note being Sam Codling, Jon Gallagher and Lucas Strauss. Reeds could have scored with the very last move of the game, but quick running and quick thinking by Sam saw him kick the ball into touch with us still in the lead by 2 points - Camerons first half conversion proving crucial.

Overall a great game and many thanks to Reeds for their hospitality. This fixture is sure to be repeated next season; both as an A/B and as a pure 'B' game. Post-match ceremonies at Reeds involve chugging orange squash from a 'yard' glass, in which activity Jon Gallagher and Eslam Djennad represented their club with distinction.