Pilgrims Stay Top

CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 45 HEATHFIELD & WALDRON 22

by John MItchell

The last time these two sides met, back in October, it was a closely fought affair and although Pilgrims pulled away in the very late stages it was no different this time. On a sticky pitch the visitors sent out an early warning as they got a maul moving and scored a pushover try, which was converted. Canterbury soon got back in the game with some excellent passing and a slick move put Brad Law away for a try. It was quickly followed by a wonderful line break as Presley Farrance carved a huge hole in the Heathfield defence and Gus Lister came on to the ball at speed. Farrance converted the try and a second from Law soon followed. Another driving maul score saw the visitors eat into the Pilgrims lead and they came even closer with a successful penalty goal. That stirred the home side into action again and by half time they had established what seemed to be a comfortable position. A wonderful team effort put Adrian Geddes, who was having a stormer at flanker, away to score and a fifth came from a typical Farrance effort. Lister converted both tries to make it 31-15 at the break. Within 30 seconds of the restart the visitors charged down a poor clearance kick from Farrance to close the gap with a converted try and it stayed like that until the closing minutes. The game became scrappy and ill disciplined with poor ball handling and brilliant defensive work by Heathfield. Canterbury were close to what would have been the try of the season, but the ball was judged to have been held up over the line but in the final three minutes they scored twice. Farrance got both tries and Will Hilton converted them to ensure that Pilgrims stay top of Counties One Kent having now played 14 won 14. This week they travel to Dartfordians who are second in the league.