Old Elthamians had in their ranks going into this match both our league’s leading kicker (Tom White with 234 points) and the runaway leading try scorer (Renford Bennett with 24) and both added to their tallies at Duke’s Meadows on Saturday, in Tom White’s case significantly, and crucially for the result of the game’s, so. Indeed Tom’s White’s contribution was so important that it gave the writer of the OE’s match report who shares a surname both with their illustrious kicker and another of their backs, or his chief sub perhaps, the opportunity for this absolutely splendid headline : “ Mandarins Squeezed as White Takes the Pith”.

Hats off to that headline writer and to Tom White himself whose eight penalties from eight attempts, seven in the first half alone including some booming efforts from only just into the CS half, using but at the same time having to tame the vagaries of the icy east wind, were largely instrumental in delivering this victory for his side.

The other side of that penalty coin was that the Stags were truly profligate in conceding them and my scribblings indicate signs of my exasperation come penalty number three already : “When will they ever learn ?” I have noted. If you add to that indiscipline a yellow card after 19 minutes and a red card after 29 minutes so 61 minutes plus injury time played with a man short then clearly it was the Stags themselves and not Mr White who were the authors of their misfortune. The fact that the match was being controlled by a team of three meant that there was little chance of any infringement going unspotted, let alone the glaring exemplars that the Stags at this point in the game were prone to.

The game was barely three minutes old when White knocked over his first penalty after what looked like a deliberate trip and that CS miscreant could count himself lucky that no greater sanction was imposed. The Stags responded well when after six minutes full back James Houstoun was able to profit from strong running and a good off- load by inside centre Tom Mitchell to score in the corner and Scott Hadden’s inebriated haggis of a conversion somehow made it over. What followed was White’s master class as he made the Stags pay for their many indiscretions, some at least it seemed the product of wanton stupidity : hands in the ruck, side – and that is being fairly charitable – entry and so on. And that feeling of powerlessness was exacerbated when first , with the score now 7-6 Scott Hadden missed a relatively straightforward penalty for the home side, and then Tom Mitchell in conceding the fourth successful penalty after only nineteen minutes, found himself heading to the bin as well.

The fifth penalty was for a scrummaging infringement and judging by the way the Stags crumpled on that occasion , referee David Parsons had a range of potential offences to choose from. Centre Richard McLaughlin’s dismissal for punching after 29 minutes - after the Old Elthamian No 8 had taken exception to some vigorous boot on back Kiwi rucking - appeared to herald Armageddon. With the resulting seventh penalty also nailed our visitors lead 7-21 and there could be no way back from there surely? Their metronomic kicker had at that point in time struck in the 3rd, 12th, 15th, 19th, 20th, 23rd and 30th minutes!

Rugby has its own script and it was of course the Stags who scored next – a try needless to say – when Houstoun, again taking an inside ball, simply scythed through and when, on the stroke of half-time, Hadden kicked a simple penalty the gap at 15-21 was looking bridgeable but with fourteen men it was going to take a super-human effort to do so. But had the Stags’ luck perhaps turned : when Tom White had tried a drop-kick from the halfway line minutes earlier it had fallen just short!

Thirteen minutes into the second half it was Old Elthamians’ turn to see yellow and with parity of numbers the Stags looked more comfortable and indeed it was the visitors who nearly conceded a score when a clearance kick was charged down . They did manage to survive the sin bin period without conceding a score but, no sooner had it ended, than Houstoun struck again for his hat-trick and, with Hadden converting well, the Stags now held a 22-21 lead that had seemed out of the question not that long ago.

Fourteen against fifteen is hard work though and there were now echoes of the Bishop’s Stortford home game although on that occasion the Stags had been ravaged by injury rather than disciplinary indiscretion. In the event they could not hold out and after 72 minutes some clever sleight of hand in the centre by our visitors created a relatively straight forward run-in for the league’s leading try scorer, Renford Bennett. It came as more than a little surprise when the conversion was missed until one realised that White - who had taken a knock in the build-up- had not in fact taken it! Nonetheless that meant that it remained at this point a four point game : 22-26. It was a mountain too far, however, and it was our visitors who drew further ahead after 76 minutes - but not out of losing bonus point range at least - with an eighth – but his first of the half –Tom White penalty.

It had been a pulsating game in which the Stags had played better with fourteen men than fifteen and scored three tries to one with Houstoun’s hat-trick taking him up to second in the league’s try scorer’s list with seventeen. But, yes, there could be no argument : White with his 100 % kicking record including some monsters had indeed mightily taken the pith!

CS Rugby 1863 scorers:

Tries

Houstoun (3)

Cons

Hadden (2)

Pen

Hadden