BECKENHAM entertained Dover at Balmoral Avenue with both sides looking to maintain their early season momentum and build on their opening league victory last week.

But it was the home side that took the honours in a game that could have gone either way right up to the final whistle.

The visitors had the advantage of the stiff breeze and the slope in the opening period but it was the hosts that took the initiative as they looked to keep the ball in hand and limit their opponents chances to take advantage of the elements.

With barely five minutes on the clock James Curr made a fine break just inside his own half and found the supporting Pat Wright and they made their way into the Dover 22.

The Dover defence was stretched and when the referee penalised them for an infringement at the breakdown, Paul Currie took a quick tap and fed Curr who in turn found George Daniels who was driven over by his forwards for the opening try.

The conversion out wide was missed but the home side had their tails up and from a scrum straight from the restart, the excellent Luke Harding made a break before feeding Wright who went over in the corner before being called back for a forward pass.

Dover now had the opportunity to use the elements and an innocuous kick deep into the Beckenham 22 was easily fielded by Wright and as he attempted to clear his lines Buster Collins charged the kick down and powered his way through two tackles to score and give Blair Charge an easy conversion and the visitors the lead by 5 to 7.

The rest of the half was dominated by Dover and Martyn Beaumont was unlucky not to score but despite the pressure all they had to show for it was two Charge penalties to leave the half time score at 5 to 13.

Beckenham took charge of proceedings in the early part of the second half and within 10 minutes of the break Wright had added two penalties to take the score home side to within two points.

Further opportunities to take the lead were missed and when try scorer Daniels was binned Beckenham somehow maintained their shape and took the lead through a Ted Mahutariki penalty with twenty minutes to go.

Back to full strength, the hosts were playing the elements beautifully and eventually the pressure told as a period of sustained pressure on the Dover line resulted in Daniels being driven over by his forwards again for what turned out to be the game clinching score.

Ted Mahutariki added a fine conversion out wide to take the lead to a crucial eight points with less than 15 minutes remaining.

But this seemed to fire Dover into action, firstly a Charge penalty reduced the lead to five points and it took a determined Beckenham defence to snuff out several Dover attacks.

The home side were relieved to hear the final whistle as they held out for a hard fought victory by 21 to 16 against a team that will be in the upper reaches of the league at the end of the season.