The Stags’ encounters with Tring have often been close and are rarely dull and for the second year in succession the result of the season’s last game went right down to the wire with the very last kick of the game determining its outcome. Last year Dorking kicked a conversion to win. This year it was a CS penalty attempt - albeit from longish range - that fell short.

It had been nip and tuck at Duke's Meadows for most of the first half with Tring enjoying more perhaps of the balance of the play, assisted by the fitful westerly breeze on this bright spring afternoon. For the first twenty five minutes there was no score but the deadlock was broken when Tring went into an eight point lead, courtesy first of a penalty by their evergreen full back, Tom Newton and then a try by stand-off Tom Mellor. Ben Lloyd pulled three back with a penalty for the Chiswick based home side and 3-8 was the score just minutes before the break and probably represented par for CS in the circumstances , particularly as prop, Sam Glasson had spent ten minutes in the bin.

The half ended well for them , however with, first, a well worked James Houstoun try and, then, a classic in and out by left wing Jon Webber that was an absolute joy to behold and - far from facing a deficit - the Stags who stayed out on the pitch whilst their opponents went in to lick some metaphorical late wounds were looking good at 17-8, both tries having been converted by Lloyd.

When the lead was stretched five minutes after the interval to 20-8 by a further Lloyd penalty all seemed set fair for the Stags but Tring are nothing if not competitive and a try by their scrum half, Richard Beeny converted by Newton, at a time when CS were again playing short with James Houstoun this time in the bin, brought the gap down to five points again and both sets of spectators were finding their voices.

Scrum–half Tom McArthur then poached one back for the Stags : what a boost he has been able to give the team coming in as the fourth, or is it perhaps the fifth scrum-half used this season, and it is an interesting debating point where he might stand in the pecking order now! Sadly the 20 year-old is off travelling next year. With his try converted again and back in the lead by 12 points and three quarters of the match gone this should have been the Stags’ game.

Tring had other ideas and twelve point leads can soon get squandered and squandered here it indeed was : first a Newton penalty chipped away at it and then Tring's forwards got driving to produce a try for second row, Harry Green : 27-25 now with about ten minutes to go and very much squeaky buttock time.

Newton, calm as ever, kicked a penalty to give Tring the lead with just five minutes left on a clock that had seemed in both halves to have gone on ticking for a very long time . As aforementioned, Ben Lloyd could have brought it home for CS with the last kick of the game but it was not to be and all credit to Tring for pulling off a victory that had looked unlikely for them until the last ten minutes. The Stags had lost their composure somewhat and another of several tight games they have had this season had not been closed out. Referee Jonathan de Mendonca though on his first visit to Duke’s Meadows at this level is to be congratulated on an excellent game.

Next season, interestingly, will be Tring’s seventh successive season playing at this National 3 London & South East level and CS’s fifth. As such and, following Dorking’s promotion as champions on Saturday, those two clubs will be the two longest serving denizens of this league.

There will still be the trio of ex-National 2 sides : Barnes (who only avoided relegation with a strong run-in), Hertford and Westcombe Park, rubbing shoulders with the more nouveau riche. Expect at least one level transfer from the South West. Joining from below will be old adversaries Westcliff and Gravesend and one of Eton Manor and Chichester. Next season will certainly be no easier as, with all respect to Barking, there will be no side in freefall and Barnes are unlikely to be as poor as they were, initially at least, again.

CS scorers:

Tries:

Houstoun
Webber
McArthur

Cons:

Lloyd (3)

Pens:

Lloyd (2)