Blackheath 39 Bishop’s Stortford 32
A fine second-half performance from Blackheath gave them back-to-back home wins to maintain fifth place in National League One prior to the Christmas break, but they were kept honest by a Stortford side who never gave up and pushed hard to the end.
On a damp, blustery December afternoon, Tom Ffitch gave Blackheath a three-point start for not rolling, but a penalty at the first scrum put Stortford on the front foot and, as their pack drove forward, scrum-half Chris Bolton moved blind to put wing Alex Gilham across next to the left corner flag.
More pressure from the visitors quickly followed and another blindside move off lineout ball saw hooker Alex Rayment dive over, Bolton added the conversion for a 12-3 lead.
Blackheath responded with Jake Lloyd and Tom Baldwin making ground, before a neat offload from Markus Burcham sent Lloyd down the right touchline to score. Although Stort wing Tom Mills used the wind to land a penalty from just inside the halfway line, a close-range lineout for Blackheath had Billy Harding touching down at the base of a maul, reducing the arrears to two points.
Further Stort pressure resulted in another three points for Bolton, but as the visitors conceded a free-kick at the scrum, Burcham sent through a grubber-kick, neatly collected by fellow centre Leo Fielding, who unselfishly offloaded to Lloyd for the wing’s second try. Ffitch’s conversion nudged the hosts ahead 20-18 at the break.
Two further strikes from the Club’s fly-half followed soon after the restart and while Stort now struggled to adapt to playing against the wind, for Blackheath Jordan Burns made a dart from scrum-half, Mike Etete and Andrew Boye made further ground, and Harding burst away from a ruck for the hooker’s 10th of the campaign, Ffitch extended the lead to 15 points with the conversion.
Stort struck back immediately as replacement scrum-half Declan Murphy dummied and then showed impressive pace to race over for a converted try. But Noah Sloot had already demonstrated his ability to turn possession at key moments in defence for Blackheath, and now his blindside colleague in the Club back-row, Josh Smart, did the same in attack, as two big turnovers gave Ffitch two strikes to take his personal tally to 19 points.
Stortford’s last visit to Well Hall had seen them overturn a 10-point deficit with as few minutes remaining, and with time ebbing away once more, loose ball was hacked on by Gilham, Murphy again showed his pace to evade the defence, reducing the gap to a converted score.
This time though, the Club’s defence held out.
“Stortford have got a lot of character, they stay in games and keep fighting, and you have to keep going and going as they can come back from anywhere,” said Blackheath director of rugby James Shanahan. “Luckily, a couple of great turnovers from Josh Smart kept us out in front, otherwise they might have had opportunities to draw level.
“We controlled the game really well from 10 to 50 minutes, both against and with the wind, and should have kicked on from 33-18 ahead, but it’s a win to keep us in fifth, and from where we were a year ago, I’ll take that.”
National League Rugby takes a break for Christmas and New Year, but the Anthony Fitzgerald Memorial Match in support of CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young) takes place at Well Hall on Friday December 27 featuring a Club U23 side against Old Colfeians, kick-off 7.30 pm.
Blackheath are back in league action on Saturday January 11 when they make the short journey along the South Circular to Priory Lane and near-rivals Rosslyn Park.
The Club return to The Utilita to face Birmingham Moseley a week later.
PICTURES: NICK KING