Wanstead......................10

Met Police Chigwell......13

(Eastern Counties League Div One)

STRONG early pressure from playing almost the whole first quarter in the visitors' half did not yield the points to take Wanstead to their first league win of the season at home last Saturday.

The home side began strongly against their newly promoted visitors, scrapping inside the Met Police 22 for possession and disrupting their lineouts. Met Police also had a player sent off for violent conduct after ten minutes and were forced to re-group.

Stefan Jasinski was unlucky to miss with his first penalty attempt. Wanstead were soon awarded another, 15 metres from the Met line, and drove over with a well worked move. Paul Grindley touched down for his first of the season.

Having withstood four set scrums on their five-metre line after the kick-off, Wanstead then pushed the ball downfield only to concede a penalty which was tapped and run quickly, with Jim Thomas scoring the try which levelled the scores. Wanstead were quickly 10-5 down as Met attacked the other touchline, evading Damian Crilly's brave last tackle attempt.

Soon into the second half, the Herons came under serious pressure again as they absorbed a succession of tapped penalties within their 22.

The last of these led to a scrum in front of the posts that collapsed and the resulting penalty put the visitors 13-5 ahead. Another high ball was caught neatly by tighthead Scott Byrne who unleashed his backs from the resultant mark. This quick thinking meant that Wanstead were able to run the length of the field and score near the posts through David Barnes. Wanstead continued a miserable afternoon with the boot and failed to convert.

Met Police secured their first win of the season, denying Wanstead the chance of their own.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.