Cranbrook entertained Dartfordians, to whom they had lost heavily away, on a dull afternoon mercifully without further rain on a very wet pitch.
Kicking off away from the clubhouse, Cranbrook retained good position as the visitors knocked on. After a couple of promising phases of play the referee seeing no advantage gained, went back to an offside earlier given, but Fabian Rimmer missed the resultant kick.
Soon, as Cranbrook lost a scrum on their put in, expansive Dartfordians play produced a nice try in the clubhouse corner.
Cranbrook responded well as they put enough pressure on Dartfordians to concede more penalties for offside, the last of which Rimmer put between the posts from 35 metres after12 minutes.
Dartfordians were in the ascendency for the next quarter as their dominant scrum provided good ball, a try resulted in a similar fashion to their earlier score, well converted. Dartfordians intelligently mixed their plays and wing Elliot Barbour managed to charge down a chip through to thwart an attack, but when a simple move from a scrum in the 22 sliced through the Cranbrook defence for a score under the post’s things looked ominous for the hosts.
Despite the difficulties at the scrum Cranbrook although pushed back usually did enough to retain the ball, scrum half Ollie Addis did wonderfully well to provide a good service to flyhalf Alex Cornwallis in the circumstances keeping Cranbrook going forward, although occasionally the referee Mr Ross Alexander deemed Cranbrook to be at fault.
It looked promising for Cranbrook as Cornwallis intercepted in midfield and Rimmer continued the break. As Dartfordians again transgressed Rimmer kicked to 5 metres but the lineout was lost and well cleared.
Now Toby Freeman won the lineout and a break by Rimmer was continued and returned inside for him to score by the posts and convert.
Dartfordians scored a 4th try on the approach to halftime as a fumble on the wing was kicked through by the fullback to score for a halftime 10-24 scoreline.
Cranbrook started the second half well and scored after 5 minutes as Rimmer made ground on the left and Bear Pearce was up in support to cross the tryline. The game continued in an even-handed way as Cranbrook were competitive in the loose, but play was mainly confined to midfield as perhaps the heavy conditions took their toll, although the pitch stood up well again. A chance appeared from a cross kick towards wing Stefan Jovanovic who just needed to collect for an easy run in, but a wicked bounce of the ball slowed his collection of it enough for the defence to reform. Cranbrook occasionally threatened as long passes found a bit of space, but could not find a score, while much less was seen of the earlier expansive Dartfordians back play which reflected on a strong effort from the Cranbrook XV.
Dartfordians did score a couple of close range tries in the last ten minutes to gain a slightly flattering final scoreline of 15-36.
Cranbrook had competed very well and although having a makeshift front row which caused scrum difficulties, will hope that returning players will enable them to defeat Thanet in the key rearranged match at home next weekend.
The team was 1 L Stone, 2 M Stockman, 3 J Bushell, 4 T Hamplett, 5 T Freeman, 6 D Houghton-Judge, 7 B Pearce, 8 H Gillanders captain, 9 O Addis, 10 A Cornwallis, 11 A Andrews, 12 F Rimmer, 13 J Lewis, 14 S Jovanovic, 15 E Barbour, replacements C Fowler for Jovanovic 70 mins and D Martin for Horton-Judge73, B Sutton.
Match report by Philip Rimmer