Beckenham secure welcome away victory (From News Shopper)

Wimbledon 10 Beckenham 13

10:01am Monday 21st December 2009 in Sport By Paul Skelly

Following a late pitch inspection and a large dose of common sense, Wimbledon entertained Beckenham at Barham Road in this enthralling London 1 South league encounter that had both sets of supporters on edge until the final whistle.

Beckenham started strongly from the kick off and managed to turn the ball over and attack through their forwards. The home side bravely defended the first wave of attacks and managed to clear their lines but Beckenham regrouped and went again. Stand in skipper, Peter Thorne broke from the back of a driving maul after good work by Paul Roumph but was stopped just short of the line, giving Joe Narby the chance to pop to the ever busy Brendon Hamilton who bundled over from close in for an unconverted try. Beckenham went straight back on the attack from the kick off, this time using their backs to make ground, with the powerful running Alex Jones prominent, but each time fine defence from the home side managed to keep them out.

Wimbledon started to settle down and enjoyed a period of concerted pressure in the Beckenham half. Following a fine break in midfield and some great support play, a try looked certain only for James Perry to somehow prevent the try as he tackled the player in the act of scoring. Beckenham somehow managed to clear their lines from the resulting scrum but Wimbledon came straight back and levelled the game when the visitors simply ran out of tacklers as the home side went through the phases.

Beckenham were generally having the upper hand but were conceding good field position as they gave away a string of penalties. Scoring chances were limited as the Wimbledon defence were giving little away but the pressure finally told and Narby slotted over a penalty to take the half time lead by 5 to 8.

Wimbledon started to dominate the set piece in the second half, disrupting the visitor’s scrum but they got little change out of their defence and decent scoring opportunities were few and far between. When the Beckenham backs got some decent possession they were making good ground but some wayward final passes wasted some clear scoring chances. Eventually, after an excellent turnover in midfield by Steve Benham and some fine handling by Jack Hewett and Pete Isaac, Jones found some space wide on the left and sprinted clear, the unconverted try giving them an eight point lead. Minutes later, the Visitors almost put the game out of sight when debutant Sam Spong released Benham who was very unlucky not to have been awarded a try as he was tackled as he dived for the line. The Beckenham faithful knew what was coming next and true to form the last fifteen minutes proved to be a very tense affair as the home side used their superiority in the set piece to set up a fine driving maul and power over for an unconverted try to take them within three points. Wimbledon continued to attack from deep, particularly through the stand-out player on the pitch, full back Dave Charles, who punished the visitors with a series of powerful and elusive runs that set up some fine attacking positions. Beckenham were forced to defend with their lives and lived up to the task as they finally managed to work out how to stop the home side’s driving maul, with Jack Nielsen and Paul Currie disrupting the momentum.

Beckenham cleared their lines and the final whistle followed shortly after to give them a very welcome away victory by 10 to 13.