Last Gasp Victory

BROMLEY 26 CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 28

by John Mitchell

The newly crowned champions of Kent 1 left it to the last minute to save themselves from a second defeat of the season. Will Hilton’s penalty goal came to the rescue after Pilgrims saw a comfortable sixteen points half time lead whittled away by a resurgent Bromley. After falling behind to an early penalty goal Canterbury took charge of the first half and once they had worked some errors out of their system forged ahead when Gus Lister surged through for an excellent try. Hilton converted and quickly added a long range penalty goal. A second Bromley penalty goal cut into the lead but the last ten minutes of the half belonged to the visitors. A great individual try from scrum half Hector Valldares, converted by Hilton, was followed by the best score of the day from Sonny Trew-Neville. Bromley came out with all guns blazing in the second half. Within the first minute they had scored and converted before Hilton replied with another well taken penalty. Weak defending did not help as the home side struck again with an unconverted try and suddenly the score was 18-25. Then came the rain, sleet and wind and Bromley scored try number three. Again they missed the conversion but Pilgrims dug deep and should have scored at least two tries. But the home side defended well and with two minutes left they slotted a penalty to take the lead. It looked like Pilgrims had lost the game, but with 30 seconds left on the clock Hilton stepped up and, under immense pressure, made the winning kick.

On 6th April, Pilgrims go to Beccehamians for their last game of the season. The Canons, club’s 3rd XV, will travel with them looking for a victory which would make them Counties 5 Kent league champions