RAIDERS STORM TO TOP OF THE TABLE

WHAT a day, what a wind and what a victory.

Brilliant, the only downside being a worrying injury to our superb fly half Owen Thomas who, with the game all but won, had to leave the pitch with an injured arm.

Back in the side after injury, the ever impressive Doug Horrocks off-loaded the ball to Dale Martin to slide next to the posts for an early try converted by Owen Thomas.

Straight from the kick-off Sidcup kicked the ball into the hands of Luke Sayer, who glided through the home defence.

With some sublime passing along a line of forwards the ball found Anthony Armstrong on the left wing and his cheeky flick found the supporting Luke Jones who ran in for the second try, again converted by Thomas.

Sidcup hit back with a try of their own, but when their No. 8 found himself in the sin-bin Raiders took advantage and Thomas scored in the corner and converted a difficult kick.

Before half-time Sayer went in for the easiest of tries to confirm the bonus point by the break and, to complete a perfect half for the visitors, Malcolm Barnes, in imperious form all day, scored try number five.

Surprisingly, Thomas missed the easiest kick of the day but Raiders still led 33-5 at the interval.

It was now a case of hanging on and repelling the inevitable Sidcup onslaught as they tried to get back into the game.

Time and time again the home team set out their stall in the Raiders half, but crucially Sidcup knocked on at vital times and our excellent defence kept the game at stalemate for long periods.

In the conditions Raiders were forced to run the ball out of their half against the strong win and midway through the half as Thomas came off with a shoulder niggle the Sidcup no 8, who looked well offside, intercepted a pass and ran in to score a converted try.

But an increasingly frustrated Sidcup collected two more yellow cards which helped the Raiders cause and with 10min. left and from a scrum Cameron Craine picked up the ball at the back of the driving maul and powered over for a well deserved try for the hard working pack.

It then mattered not that with the last play of the game Sidcup's never give up attitude was rewarded with a try.

The big games don’t stop for Jordan Reynolds’ developing Raiders side.

After the superb away display at Sidcup, the Guernsey side begin preparing for another tough test – at home to another set of title-challengers – Westcliff – this coming Saturday with kick-off at 2:30pm.

Westcliff lie fifth in the table but underlined their capabilities by defeating the side that topped the London and South East Premier table on Saturday lunchtime, namely Barnes.

Back in Guernsey, St Jacques Vikings paid dearly for a sluggish start and went down 24-29 to Newick at the KGV.

There were tries for Connor Sullivan, Cashel Cahill, Alec Bailey and Taylor Quate, the second and last of those real beauties.

Leon Collenette landed two conversions.