London South West Three

Old Midwhitgiftian 25 Sandown & Shanklin 17

OLD Mids' former players were treated to a fine display from the current crop as they dispatched their Isle of Wight visitors deservedly last Saturday.

The hosts were first to threaten, as centre Ali Savage made good ground before the ball was recycled and skipper Mat Higgins set up an excellent position to allow his forwards to drive him over for the try.

Fly half Dan Crouch converted, and added a close-range penalty midway through the half after scrum half James Grice was tackled too high.

But instead of consolidating the home defence lost concentration and Sandown winger Dan Muir was allowed in for a try which full back Will Baxendale converted.

Mids responded with centre Dave Matthews combining well with Murphy and Russell Jones punching holes in the visiting defence, while Crouch missed an attempted drop goal.

But it was the islanders who scored next as they spread the ball wide, benefited from two missed tackles and winger Luke Chandler skipped in for an unconverted try to put the visitors 12-10 ahead.

Crouch put Mids back into the lead six minutes after the interval with a penalty, before a tremendous passage of play involving 10 home players saw Crouch feed Higgins for his second try.

Poor covering out wide allowed second row forward Luke Hunter to work up steam and crash over in the corner for Sandown, the conversion being missed.

Though Mids were the stronger team in the loose with flanker Dean Gardner and lock Mark Handley prominent, the visitors were well drilled and dominated the scrum, making made better use of the ball.

But Mids were able to breathe more easily when a fine flowing move involving Crouch and Orchard created space for substitute winger Matt Hoyles to score in the corner. The conversion was narrowly missed.

Old Mids A XV were unfortunate to go down 28-27 to Mayfair Occasionals with the last kick of the game.