Hill breathe easier but Heath misery goes on

There was joy and relief for Burgess Hill on Saturday as they notched their third win in London SE 3 but two divisions above, Haywards Heath’s misery continued unabated.

The Sussex All Blacks ground out a 12-3 home win against fellow strugglers Sheppey, while Heath were crashing to their 10th defeat in 10 London SE 1 League starts this season.

Things did look a lot more promising for Heath in the opening 20 minutes at Wimbledon, where they enjoyed the bulk of the possession.

But they failed to turn that into points, save for an Owain Jenkins penalty just five minutes in. That was despite solid scrummaging, clean and efficient line out ball from Al Harle and Adie Winters, sensible decision-making at half back from Alex Chard and Jenkins, and good running from a back line in which Robbie Fotheringham and Gareth Quay shone.

Yet even with the hosts down to 14 after 10 minutes when centre Neil Brown was sin-binned for a tip tackle, Heath still failed to get another score on the board and inevitably went behind after Brown’s return to the action.

Some injudicious kicking, although not from Jenkins whose defensive line kicking was exemplary, allowed Wimbledon plenty of chances to run the ball and after some great cover tackles, the dam was finally breached on 26 minutes when Neil Hallett converted his own try.

It was 14-3 just 10 minutes later with a try by home prop Pete Wallace and with Harle sitting in the sin binfor 10 minutes either side of half time, Heath fell 17-3 down to a Hallett penalty.

In the second half Heath held out for 15 minutes before full back Tommy Moore cut through a yawning midfield gap and Hallett took his personal tally to 14.