A good victory marred by an injury to prop George Batchelor, who I am sad to inform you has fractured his collarbone and will be out until mid-January. I am sure I can speak for the whole team in passing on our best wishes for a speedy recovery, and we will hopefully see George back with us for the Christmas meal if not before.

This was our first visit to Croydon, who run a team in Division 4 and due to shortage of numbers had to field a number of U16 players. This made the eventual scoreline even more impressive for our B's. As was the case last week, a couple of last-minute pullouts due to injury and illness made for some forced alterations in the lineup - and players asked to play out of position. After a few problems finding the ground, we were able to cross the road and prepare for the match on a heavy pitch.

From the very start, Diogo Carvalho was fired up and playing out of his skin. A good run was followed up by the first of three tries as he evaded several tackles to score. Louis Hogan began a fine day of kicking by converting to take us to 7-0 up. Further Wimbledon pressure followed, the highlight being a great kick and follow-up from James Waghorn, playing out of position for the second week running at fly-half this time. A good scrum in the Croydon half allowed Diogo to pick up and score another breakaway try, this time not converted: 12-0. Croydon now came back at us with some determined running, stopped by equally determined tackling - in the course of these defensive efforts, George Batchelor made a great tackle only to hit the ground awkwardly and had to come off with a very painful shoulder injury.

Wimbledon were obviously distracted by the resulting delay, and one of the Croydon centres was able to pick up the ball on their right, run right around most of our players and score over on their left. Some poor tackling here which unfortunately was repeated several times during the game and allowed all of the Croydon tries. Wimbledon nearly came back immediately after Matt Rogers managed to steal the ball in the Croydon half, but the ball was shipped out the Croydon left and one of their centres again ran through several tackles to score in the corner (unconverted). Score now at 12-10, the closest it was to be during the game. Croydon nearly took the lead shortly afterwards, after a very good move put the ball all the way out to their right, the overlap being wasted by a knock-on from their outside centre.

It was now Wimbledons turn to come back, and Diogo was unlucky to be pushed out just short of their line. Some poor Croydon tackling (and his usual excellent handoffs) allowed Sam Codling to run through and score - Louis missing the conversion for the last time during the match. Some good passages of play saw Oliver Moulton unlucky not to score with a great kick-and-follow move, and James Waghorn similarly unlucky not to score on the left. Centre Matt Shaw put in a great try-saving tackle on the right, to complement his excellent attacking play today - his passing was accurate and well-timed all game. Elliot Phillips was also prominent, particularly defensively, and made a couple of great tackles at this point. However it was almost inevitable that Diogo would complete his hat-trick and he did so shortly before half-time, the conversion taking the score to 24-10 at the break.

Coming out for the second half, Croydon started very well and again one of their centres was able to run around us to score. He was unfortunately shown too much space on the outside and made full use of it - one for the training ground. Further pressure could have resulted in another try but for a great tackle from Matt Rogers - unfortunately injuring his knee in the process and forcing another change as he had to come off. With the lead down to 9 points, Louis wisely opted to kick the next penalty we received in their half, taking the score to 27-15. There were then several minutes of pressure from Croydon, with some 'rugby netball' close to our line and a good move from their No8 which was held up on our line. I didn't see who eventually wrapped him up and stopped the try, any claimers? This period of pressure was relieved by an excellent move which got the ball out to Oli Moulton on our left with half of the pitch still to cover. He stepped inside perfectly to score under the posts and leave Louis with an easy conversion to take us to 34-15.

A fine period of play from Wimbledon followed, with many team members making contributions. Eslam Djennad caught well from their kickoff and made good ground; Diogo made an excellent clearing kick, and Sam was unlucky when another kick-and-run did not come off. A great move started by Jack Blyth, playing well at scrum-half, continued through Jodi Smith and Sam was unlucky not to score. Sam was not to be denied another try however, and when we won their lineout just inside their half (not for the first time) he picked up, handed off several players and was able to score under the posts. Louis' clockwork conversion took the score to 41-15. Croydon pressure was held up by some good defensive work, notably by late sub Max Tomlinson, Eslam and Jodi. James W made another impressive chase, but the next score was to be from a quickly taken penalty by Louis Hogan. Converting this himself took Louis' personal points total to 18 for the day. 48-15 up.

The game was to end on a negative note for Wimbledon as Croydon appplied pressure and were able to score another unconverted try from their scrum, and were unlucky to drop the ball towards the end of a good back-line move. However the (very) low point was when the Croydon No4, big but by no means unstoppable, was able to run through at least 8 Wimbledon tackles to score near the posts in almost the last kick of the game. The Croydon fly-half finally found his distance and converted, to leave the final score at 48-27. The boys thoroughly deserved the roasting that Mark gave them for this bit of appalling defending, I am afraid to say. Just one low, properly-executed tackle would have halted this run. A sour note to end on, because the overall performance was good and I think a late lapse of concentration due to the points differential probably had an effect.

Post-match we had the usual circus of missing kit, heightened by the need to repatriate Georges boots which Eslam had been borrowing. I am afraid a miscommunication meant we were not aware C