Letchworth came within a whisker of taking the scalp of third in the league Civil Service in a pulsating battle at Legends Lane on Saturday. On balance the draw was probably a fair enough result but both sides had an opportunity to win this one. Withou

Letchworth came within a whisker of taking the scalp of third in the league Civil Service in a pulsating battle at Legends Lane on Saturday.

On balance the draw was probably a fair enough result but both sides had an opportunity to win this one.

Without the injured Sterienburg and having lost inspirational skipper Jaggi Johal after twenty minutes, the Letchworth pack battled well against a hard Civil Service 8.

Tim Moynihan was majestic in the lineout whilst loose forwards Lewis Hett and Sam Flatman had outstanding games. As Kiwi Gavin Donald was absent watching brother Stephen demolish the Scots for the All Blacks, the line was led by starlet Henry Robinson who proved that he was equal to the task of a fly half.

Indeed he struck two excellent penalties that Donald would have been proud of against the strong wind in the first half.

Civil Service played with a strong wind in the first half and although they had most of the territory, stiff Letchworth defence prevented any tries being scored.

After a sustained period of pressure, Civil were awarded a penalty which was ably converted by no. 12 Aaron Campbell. However, Letchworth were not going to be intimidated and a storming run from prop Mark 'Budge' Burgess tore the Civil Service side apart.

When a Civil player infringed, Robinson stepped up calmly to slot his first penalty.

After another infringement, Robinson made no mistake to give Letchworth an unexpected 6-3 lead. Just before half-time Campbell struck for Civil to tie the scores at 6-6.

With the strong wind in the second half, the Letchworth faithful had hoped for better things. Ironically the team missed the cultured boot of Donald to really put Civil Service under pressure down at the Baldock Road end corner.

Letchworth had the better of the second half but just could not score. There were very few penalties conceded over the 40 minutes and both sides had only one attempt at goal each - both missed narrowly.

A late break by the London visitors nearly saw them score in the corner but flying forward Lewis Hett made a try saving tackle to avert the danger.

Young scrum half Harvey Howman, 18 yesterday, had a fine game as did other youngsters Robin French and Liam Corcoran. This recent run has set things up nicely as a precursor to the 'main course' next week against local rivals Stevenage.

The 2nd XV kept up their fine run with a 33-12 win against Welwyn with James Nye scoring a hat-rick. Alex Hutchinson did the same for the 3rds in their 49-0 romp against Sawston 2s.

nAngela Burke raised over £600 for Cancer Awareness the previous Friday night at her 50th birthday bash at the club and would like to thank all those who made donations.