Caylor nips in to ease BEs' fears of the drop

Barnet Elizabethans 23 Chingford 15

The defining moment of this basement battle, indeed perhaps for BEs' whole season, came 15 minutes from the end when the home side's substitute winger Mark Caylor intercepted a floated Chingford pass on halfway and sprinted to the line with three defenders in hot pursuit.

To the roars of a spirited crowd he made it to the line to stretch BEs' lead to eight points and give them a sufficient cushion to survive the visitors' final onslaught.

A top scorer for Old Elizabethans for many years and the leading scorer since the amalgamation, the veteran winger could have notched his most important try to date.

Indeed this was a game that BEs thoroughly deserved to win and for only the second time this season came away with league points and the rub of the green.

Despite giving away far too many penalties, the efforts of the pack in particular, highlighted by some excellent scrummaging, No 8 Keating and the return of the rock at the back, full back Goldsmith, proved too much for a spirited Chingford outfit who were inspired by a nippy scrum half Morgan.

It was this player who opened the scoring after ten minutes with a short range snipe after a line-out near the home side's line, but this was the visitors' last success in the first half as BEs took over territorial advantage.

Scrum half Long scampered blind to send winger Peter Bott in at the corner and lock Greenwood crashed over following a strong burst from skipper Robb following a tap penalty in front of Chingford's posts to leave the half time score 10-5 in BEs' favour.

Immediately after the break the home side, inspired by some ferocious scummaging, scored a fine try.

Left winger Borst made the initial ground, cleverly kept the ball alive when stopped which allowed it to be spun wide where Goldsmith broke the cover and put Bott clear for his second try.

This score was extended some 15 minutes later when James Spragg kicked an important penalty out of the mud and gloom from some 25 metres.

Chingford threw everything at BEs for the next ten minutes and were finally rewarded with another close range try after a succession of penalties were tapped.

Back in the game at 15-18 and sniffing an upset, the visitors tore into BEs only to be denied by Caylor's divine interception.

Widespread relief at Byng Road at the final whistle and now BEs can look forward to resuming the league in the New Year, spending December friendlies to eliminate the deficiencies that have cost them dear in so many close struggles.

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