Blackheath earned a third consecutive victory, by a score of 33-8, over Old Albanian, to remain in fifth position in National League One.

They established a lead they were not to relinquish as early as the third minute. With a free-kick awarded against the visitors at the first set-scrum, a penalty quickly followed for hands in the ruck and as Gavin O’Meara drove forward off the line-out, Ollie Lyons, playing at No8, took play to the goal-line where George Oram crashed across for the opening try.

Ryan Squires added the first of four conversions, including two superb strikes from the right touch-line given the strength of the gusty wind, to put Blackheath 7-0 ahead.

Due to the wind, both sides struggled to retain possession and ball was frequently turned over, often as a result of excellent work from Markus Burcham.

The visitors’ solitary first-half excursion into the opposition twenty-two resulted in a penalty from fly-half Richard Gregg but the hosts roused themselves once again prior to the break. 

A line-out move broke down, but as the Hertfordshire side lost possession in front of their uprights Blackheath secured solid scrum ball to send Squires scurrying over in the right corner for a 14-3 advantage.

Given the problems with set-piece possession it was hardly surprising that most of the second-half scores came from opportunist moments. 

Two further close-range line-outs came to nothing for the hosts, but on 56 minutes Mike Canty broke away at pace along the right touch-line, and with the visitors struggling to get back into position Seb Nagle-Taylor, taking the pass one-handed behind his back, had space to send Geoff Griffiths across.

Old Albanian scrum-half Jordi Pasqualin responded quickly for the visitors, crashing over from a tap-penalty and, with the lead cut to just 13 points, Blackheath needed Tom Bason to steal an opposition throw to deny OAs a chance to make further inroads.

Perhaps Blackheath were a little cavalier to take a tap and go from a penalty close to their own goal-line after Burcham ripped possession once again but, to some relief, Griffiths soon tired of his side fiddling around in the twenty-two, and as the wing’s forward hoof was fumbled on half-way, Dave Allen kicked on before collecting a kind bounce to race across in the corner for the bonus point score.  

In the final play, the set-scrum at last provided the platform as Griffiths and Canty combined to break from their own territory. Canty was tap-tackled short, but support arrived quickly to move the ball blind for Griffiths to add his second, and Blackheath’s fifth, try.     

Blackheath make the long journey to the north-east to face Blaydon on Saturday.   

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