Wimbledon 14 Letchworth GC 25 Letchworth came away with the spoils from a successful raid south of the river. The win enabled them to leapfrog Wimbledon in the Powergen London Two North and left them lying fifth with five games still to play. On a dreary

Wimbledon 14 Letchworth GC 25

Letchworth came away with the spoils from a successful raid south of the river.

The win enabled them to leapfrog Wimbledon in the Powergen London Two North and left them lying fifth with five games still to play.

On a dreary day at Beverley Meadows, it was the home side who took the initiative from the start.

Leading female referee Georgina Perrott awarded a penalty to Wimbledon which Tom Wilde duly converted.

Letchworth soon bounced back as from the restart, Phil Pearson gathered and set off with ball to hand. The ball went down the line quickly but the final pass to Steve Harper on the wing was behind him and the momentum was lost.

As several second row players were missing, second/third XV regular Martin 'Muzza' Kirby was playing and he did not let the side down.

A fine shove from the Letchworth pack in the Wimbledon 22 meant Ian Parkhouse had a real cushion to feed Paul Hughes. The Letchworth skipper danced through two tackles and touched down with Andy Atkinson converting.

The dependable centre added two penalties in quick succession as Letchworth stretched the lead to 13-3.

After a bit of aggro at a breakdown, referee Perrott singled out Jaggi Johal, who was having a fine game at number eight, and a Wimbledon man for a spell in the sin bin.

Wimbledon received a penalty and Wilde made it 13-6.

Five minutes later, Hughes chipped through in broken play and winger Harper pounced on the ball. He outpaced the defence, who had been caught too far up, from 40 yards.

Atkinson converted to give Letchworth a comfortable lead.

The third quarter of the game was spent largely between the two 22s with neither side getting ascendancy.

A hopeful kick through by Wilde on the hour caught the Letchworth defence napping and the ball bounced kindly for winger Willoughby who sped in under the posts. Crucially Wilde missed the kick to leave Wimbledon still two scores behind.

Letchworth pressed hard over the next 10 minutes with winger Harper being held just short of the line.

Wimbledon tried to run the ball from every position and were rewarded with a penalty on the 10-yard line that Wilde put over. And when Letchworth gave away a penalty from the restart it looked that it would be an exciting finish at 20-14.

But the Letchworth forwards drove the ball deep into the Wimbledon 22 and Johal broke off from the back after a superb platform had been set up by the pack.

The number eight showed his class in eluding two desperate tackles before crossing the line and racing round to the posts to kill the game.

Atkinson missed his easiest kick of the game but by that time, Letchworth's thoughts were on the tough trip to Norwich on March 4, the side now directly above in the table.

The seconds had another excellent victory, this time 36-14 over Old Albanians.