A narrow loss - much closer than the scoreline suggests - and a fantastic gritty performance from Wimbledon, with chances to come back in right up to the end of the game. The conditions prevented us from playing our natural game - Guildford had been praying for rain all week and they got it all right. I am reading from a soaked and blurred notebook to write this.

The game began evenly, with Wimbledon winning the first scrum Guildford however were making good use of the conditions and prevailing wind, kicking us back into our half several times. Their first good attack was held up near our line by an excellent tackle from Cameron Wilkinson. There followed a sequence of very good rucking from Guildford - to be fair, they outplayed us in this department for the whole match, stealing our ball on many occasions. Desperate defending saw some great tackles from James McGrath, Rob Davies and Angus Bonner, but rucking offences lost us 3 penalties in rapid succession and we were now 0-9 down. This was the signal for our fightback, and pressure in the Guildford half won us a scrum 20 yards out. The well-practiced move between James and Charlie McKibben allowed James McGrath to dive over for a try. Archie Watkins put over the conversion, bringing us back to 7-9 and all to play for.

The Guildford response was immediate and effective, a great display of driving and support running from their forwards pushing us over in our left corner for a try (not converted) : 7-14 down. We gradually reasserted some dominance after that, Sam being unlucky when his run down the left was halted by a high tackle. He was not to be denied however and some interplay between him and Cameron allowed Sam Codling to escape down the left for a try in the corner. Wimbledon continued to work hard for more scores between half time, of particular note being a crunching hit from Diogo Carvalho and an excellent rip during a maul from Matt Rogers. We went in 12-14 at half time.

The second half began very evenly, with our best early chance coming when Aidan O'Brien was unlucky to miss a pickup after Guidford had fumbled a pass. It was therefore a shock when Guildford scored a breakaway try, their flanker evading several tackles to score under the posts - converted to put us 12-21 down. Wimbledon were not about to concede this one yet, and we had several good attacks - one excellent sequence of passes out to the right being halted just short of their line, Charlie McKibben making one of his trademark penetrating runs, and Nic Shuttleworth being very unlucky to knock on when attempting a superb interception that would surely have been a breakaway try. When Guildford came back at us, Charlie was there again to put in a try-saving tackle.

With the clock ticking down, we laid siege to the Guildford line. A great move down the line out to the left ended up with Sam Codling sprinting for the corner and what we thought was a certain try - until a Guildford defender put in a superb tap-tackle to deny him. Another good combination between Charlie and Nic was held up, but the closest we came to scoring was in the last few minutes when we drove over in the left corner, and were convinced we had touched the ball down. However the ref was unsighted by the mass of bodies and therefore could not give the try. Game over at 12-21.

Many thanks to Guildford for the post-match hospitality, and there was a long and friendly conversation with the Guildford coaches. The boys can be proud that they consider us to be "the best 15-man-rugby team in the division" and were glad they did not play us in the dry. One year it has to happen!