Weathered the Westcliff Onslaught

A CROWD of circa 700-plus watched Raiders celebrate on and off the pitch.
Another bonus-point win keeps them top of the London & SE Premier table and beyond the final whistle there was right time and place to mark a landmark 200th appearance for former skipper Blair Campbell.
And if our former skipper was going to be rewarded for staggering commitment in an amateur cause over so many years then why not also acknowledge the equally impressive efforts of Tom Ceillam (216 games) and Layton Batiste (235).

As for the game itself, Raiders impressively weathered a prolonged early onslaught from the visitors who were keen to do to us what they did to the previous table-toppers, and that was knock them off their perch.
Westcliff, let it be said, were impressive and throughout the game severely tested Raiders’ defensive capabilities which were top notch.
But our boys were simply superb, running in another five tries to stay a point clear at the top of the table from Tring, who won again.
But oh how the lads had to work to chalk up win number seven in eight starts.
They fell 0-3 behind early on but by the break were 17-3 to the good.
With the wind at their backs there were three home tries, courtesy of Sam Whitehead, a wonderful Luke Sayer effort created by Anthony Armstrong’s outstanding handiwork, and a penalty try.

Westcliff pegged it back to 10-17 early in the second period, but showing terrific character and quality Raiders held firm and Cameron Craine went over for try No. 4, and late on Owen Thomas converted his own piece of magic.
It mattered not that Westcliff went over from the last play of the game when Lewis Hillier was yellow carded.

Elsewhere, Guildford, our next opponents, pushed Barnes hard before going down 22-15, Sidcup lost again, this time at Tring, and Hertford edged a thriller at Tunbridge Wells.
Jordan Reynolds was one happy man afterwards.
‘It was a tough game for both sides getting frustrated by the official in the middle.
‘I don’t think either side could work out what was happening and it slowed the game down a bit, but at least it was consistent.
‘What was good is that we sustained a lot of pressure for large amounts of time and we didn’t leak points.
‘They threw everything at us and we withheld that pretty well.
‘It was a good disciplined display from our boys because there’s some fantastic players in that Westcliff team - some big boys.
‘But we rattled them early and managed to score three tries pretty quickly after that, which took us into half time.
‘I thought we could have played with a little more width at times, but they were trying to make it a real physical game and we dealt with that.’
Saturday’s results have contributed to a split between the top four and the mid-table sides, like Guildford.
There is now a 10-point gap between fourth and fifth and, already, Raiders are shaping up to enjoy their best ever season, which, of course, was the intention before a pass was thrown in the summer.
The head coach is staying relaxed about the developing situation and is certainly aware that there is still a lot of rugby to be played this season.
‘We can’t be bothered too much by other results; if we keep on winning, we keep on winning.
‘We’ve got another tough fixture against Guildford next week. They have had some mixed results, but are a good side.
‘Owen misses the next three games, so Blair will come in, although I might play Sam Whitehead there.
‘That would mean disturbing the back three which have been playing so well and I I don’t really want to do that. Playing Blair at 10 means for minimal changes.’