LEWES EXTEND LEAD AT TOP

This was Lewes's toughest game for many weeks, against a spirited and hard-tackling outfit who for most of the match denied the visitors the possession and territory they had been used to in earlier contests. Indeed, with only five minutes of the game remaining, Lewes held a slim 0 - 10 lead, but then pulled the rabbit out of the hat with 3 fine tries in the closing session to earn a valuable bonus-point win. With close rivals Haywards Heath losing at Brighton, Lewes's lead at the top of the table is now 9 points, although Heath still have a game in hand.
The first half was a dour affair, with play concentrated in the middle section of the pitch as both sides tried to gain an upper hand. However, Crawley's scrum-half was yellow-carded after 17 minutes for persistent off-side, and the one-man advantage enabled Lewes to take some form of control, breaking the deadlock on 25 minutes with a penalty in front of the posts by full-back Dan Wade to open the scoring at 0 - 3. The remainder of the first half was uninspiring with too many unforced erriors from both sides, but just before the half-time whistle, Lewes extended their lead to 0 - 10 with a try by second-row Nathan Lowen after a good build up, Wade slotting over the extras.
Crawley continued to battle on in the second half, edging the set scrums and line-outs, but were unable to break through the disciplined, hard-tackling Lewes defence. The visitors pulled further ahead after 75 minutes when, finally getting their act together, a fine move between forwards and backs was rounded-off by Wade coming into the line for a great try near the posts, which he duly converted, to make it 0 - 17. At this point, Lewes's hardy band of supporters were doubting whether their team would secure a valuable bonus-point win - but their players had no such doubts, continuing to take the attack to a tiring Crawley outfit, and only 30 seconds later gained their third try after Wade picked up loose ball inside his own half before sprinting fully 40 metres down the pitch and then off-loading to supporting winger Henry Shiell to touch down to extend the lead to 22 - 0. In what turned out to be an inspired move, Player-Coach Mike Stubbs declined the conversion in the hope that the extra time gained would enable his team to score their fourth, bonus-point try - and so it turned out as, with only seconds of the match remaining , Lewes surged upfield in one last attack to see Shiell score a fine individual try from long range - his second in quick succession - with Wade's conversion seeing Lewes run out worthy winners by 0 - 29.
In the changing rooms afterwards, the players voted second-row Matt Blunt Man-of-the-Match, while Stubbs commented: "All credit to Crawley today - they defended very well and made things hard for us. We left a few tries out there, but the boys' attitude to keep going and graft for the bonus-point was fantastic."

Lewes: Hill, Warren, Edwards, Lowen, Blunt, Hatch, Fuse, Stubbs, Jones, Shiell W, Fellows, Halpin (Capt.), Tobin, Shiell H, Wade (Reps., all used:- Dean, Creed, Gorbell).

Lewes 2nd's home game against Heathfield fell victim to frozen pitches at the Stanley Turner Ground.

For the same reason, Lewes Ladies home match v Worthing on Sunday was switched to their opponents' ground. Lewes lost 25 - 0, but they put up a good performance - a big improvement on the previous meeting between the two sides - and the score did not reflect a strong second half by the visitors.

On Saturday, Lewes 1st's entertain Chichester III's, k.o. 2.00pm, while the 2nd's make the short trip to local rivals Newick.