DARTFORDIANS entertained Gillingham at Bourne Rd in a top of the table clash which would give both teams a chance to see how far they have progressed since last season.

Gills had only made one slip up this year surprisingly against Becs but had a fine win over Guys who had given darts a hard time only two weeks previously.

The game started in fine weather and from the start the big Gills pack had Darts under pressure and as predicted showed what a tough match this was going to be.

After the early pressure Darts started to get back in the game and started using their excellent driving maul to push the visitors deep into their own half.

Tony Mead was running things at fly half and using his big kick to keep Darts in the visitor’s area of the pitch.

The game was ebbing and flowing with the Gills fly half also showing great skills.

With the Darts lineout working well, and John Bucksey and the huge Garry Jarman making great ground, it seemed it would only be a matter of time before there was a score.

This finally came when Gills killed the ball and Mead made no mistake from the kick to make it 3–0 to Darts.

Gills kept the pressure on and from a number of huge up and unders from their No 10 kept making inroads into the home team’s half of the field.

Darts have this season worked really hard on their defence and the backs were always making their hits to stop Gills making any real inroads.

Gills did have a penalty in front of the posts but a miscue from the kicker kept Darts in the lead.

Some great back play from Darts saw Chris Lovell make 40 yards and maybe could have released Jon Roots but was well tackled by the Gills back row.

With the home team’s forwards dominating the scrums their backs had plenty of time to move the ball and the excellent Babs Ojo was making some brilliant runs.

He split the Gills defence with one of these runs and after some great interplay, the ball was fed to Victor Ndu who finished the move really well scoring in the corner.

In the second half Darts were playing up the slope and started brightly but Gills were not finished and their big forwards started use their own driving mauls to push Darts deep into their 22m area.

The Gills backs were now getting some good ball going forward and were looking dangerous but the home team’s defence was holding firm.

Gills kept pressing and eventually from another driving maul they went over for a try.

Darts were forced to step up to the plate and started to get back into the match again and with Mead kicking well for position and Ojo making more great runs, Darts eventually were back in the visitors' 22.

The forwards were winning good lineout ball and using their great technique to keep Gills on the back foot.

From one of these drives they had a five metre scrum and Garry Jarman picked up and drove strongly for the line.

Although he went over and eventually grounded the ball, Darts were fortunate the referee didn’t see the knock on and awarded the try, which Mead converted. Darts were now a bit more relaxed and further pressure resulted in the visitors giving away another penalty, which was converted by Mead to stretch the lead to 18–5.

The game was now won and although Gills kept coming back at Darts, they didn’t quite have the cutting edge to break through in the backs.

Lameck Juma came on to make his debut on the wing and made a superb defensive tackle when it looked like Gills may have broken clear from inside their own 22.

Their forwards did have another good drive to produce a second try to close the gap to eight points.

In previous years this would have had Darts panicking and making mistakes, but there is new steel in this side and they upped the pace again and in the dying seconds Roots went over in the corner after some more excellent back play.