Title rivals Hastings and Bexhill were expected to beat Haywards Heath and duly pip the ‘Guerns’ for the league, but ‘HH’ heroically - well they are heroes in our eyes - won 19-12.

‘A fantastic result for a squad who have shown great dedication and determination this season,’ said the GRA development officer, Steve Melbourne.

Coach Chammings finally got off the floor in shock and said: ‘We were in a position that if they drew or lost we would win the league, but with Haywards Heath lying fifth it wasn’t something we were particularly confident about.

‘But we had a look at the Sussex league website and we saw the result which means we managed to finish two points clear.

Chammings echoed the RDO’s thoughts about the result being a just reward for the group.

‘This is a very good reward for a great year group.

‘We hope to have the trophy available for the Academy awards evening at the end of the month.

‘But they have worked hard on things like core fitness, diet, which they had never done before, as well as the whole holistic approach to improving them.’

But before any celebrations there is the little case of trying to beat Jersey this weekend.

SAYER TO BE BACK IN THE 1STS FOR WESTCOMBE

Fresh from his star performance for the Guernsey 2nds at the weekend, Luke Sayer can expect to return to the 1st XV for Saturday’s must-win final National 3 home game against Westcombe Park.

The versatile Sayer will slot in at full back after Jim Elliott, who played there in the win against Tonbridge Juddian, dislocated a finger.

Matt Hema, the No. 1 choice in the 15 shirt, also remains out.

‘Sayer will be playing full back this week, which will be great,’ said Reynolds, who has been reflecting on the Tonbridge game and the emotions of first thinking they had guaranteed their league placing with the seven-try win, but then discovering via social media that they were not quite there yet.

‘We thought that by getting five points we would be pretty pleased. But then we found out that the others had got their bonus points, which meant we had to regather ourselves.’

But it was the victory that Reynolds demanded, saying beforehand than anything less would be ‘catastrophic’ if Tring, Westcliff and co. also won.

‘It was a big must-win for us and we stepped up.’

But, the job is not quite done, as the coach has been keen to point out while looking at the various scenarios.

‘If we get one bonus point from Saturday, even if Tring and Westcliff get the full five, we should be OK as our points difference is so much better that we will be pretty safe,’ said the coach, who admits he was made to suffer on the side-lines as Tonbridge moved into a healthy early lead.

‘I did lose a couple years of my life in that first half,’ added the coach who is keen to score a big win at home to Westcombe this Saturday, rather than depend on points difference.

‘We are thinking of winning well, but potentially it could come to that.

‘Personally, I think Tring will win again, but Westcliff have got Barnes who could still take top spot and will be up for it.

‘Nothing is safe at the moment, but we are getting there.’

Before Westcombe, Reynolds’ medical team will be working on patching up a number of players from a rough and tumble clash against Tonbridge.

‘We have got a lot of wounded bodies.

‘Matt Thomas’s knee is giving him trouble and although we are getting him assessed he can’t really walk on it at the moment.

‘Lewis Hillier has a shoulder injury, but we think he will be there.

‘Ned Brown has a slight tweak of his groin, but he got through the whole match OK.

‘Jim Elliott busted his hand ... he dislocated one of his fingers, and Barts split his head open in the first five minutes. He has had it glued.

‘Tom Ceillam has got a nice shiner but he doesn’t count that as an injury.’

But Tonbridge with their monster-size pack, as it happens, fared no better.

‘They were up for the contest and they used five of their maximum eight subs in the first half. They had three guys carried off and two of their blokes didn’t look in great shape.’

STONE LAUDS 2NDS TRIUMPH

After thrashing Les Quennevais 77 points to 10 and establishing a strong grip on the CI league title, Mark Stone has admitted he sensed it would be a good news day.

‘I had an idea when I finalised my team for Saturday that we would have enough about us to get a positive result but I wasn’t expecting to hit them as hard as we did.

‘The plaudits will rightly go to Luke Sayer who ran the show from 10 for us.

‘His kicking game and strong running meant we were always in the right areas of the field, but what really impressed me was the team performance.

‘Considering we had new combinations all over the park our link up play was superb and our error count was so low. It allowed us to keep the pressure on for almost the whole game.

‘The combination of Sayer, Airy Cleery and Anthony Armstrong was almost unstoppable at times and Sam Stables returned with a bang by claiming four tries from fullback.’

But Stone had another player of the match.

‘My unsung hero of the day goes to Nico Ashplant who started his first game at tighthead and was up against one of the best looseheads in the JRA.

‘But he held his own at scrum time and put a real shift in. Great performance from the youngster.

‘It was also great to have Sam Yabsley back in the 2nd row after a two-year break from the game.

‘And, also, Diego was around and about supporting us on his crutches. It was great to see him.’