We were outstanding in the first half today and for the last 20 minutes. Seaford came back at us and rallied well. But our win has capped off a great League campaign. The boys have been fantastic all year and captained well by James Halpin.

- Player-Coach Mike Stubbs

In windy conditions at The Salts, Lewes finished their League season as Champions with a convincing victory over local rivals Seaford, but not before the hosts nearly gave Lewes a fright, coming back from a 0-39 deficit at the half-time break by scoring an unopposed 19 points of their own in the opening quarter of the second half, before Lewes got back into gear and dominated the remainder of the game.
It took Lewes only two minutes to open the scoring at 0-5 when a scrum drive down the right ended with Player-Coach Mike Stubbs touching down for an unconverted try. A similar attack down the same side of the field was rounded off by full-back Dan Wade coming into the line for his side's second, but unconverted, try to stretch the advantage to 0-10, which became 0-15 five minutes later when stalwart right-winger Steve Mills went over in the corner for another unconverted try. Lewes' fourth, bonus-point try swiftly followed as scrum-half Henry Tagg touched down, centre Nick Sharp adding the extras to enable the visitors to pull away at 0-22. Before the first 40 minutes was up, Lewes added to their tally with a try from second-row Jack Nayler, two more from Wade (to complete his hat-trick), and a conversion from Sharp to finish the half leading 0-39.

See Danny Simpson's photos of the game here>>

With Lewes making several changes during the break, Seaford started off the second half with more possession and territory than they had enjoyed in the first half as their opponents went off the boil. This enabled Seaford to hit back with two tries from centre Darren Flynn and one from Terry Newby, with outside-half Paul Harwick adding 2 conversions, to see the hosts narrow the gap a little to 19-39. But this only spurred Lewes back into action and they quickly reverted to their earlier attacking flair, combined with solid defence, to rack up further tries from Stubbs (3), Tagg, Wade and prop-forward Fraser Warren, with four conversions from Tagg, to round off a fine season in front of their large following of supporters with a thumping 19-77 victory.

After the match, Lewes were presented with the Sussex League 1 Trophy by County President, Dewi Vaughan, following which Stubbs commented:

"We were outstanding in the first half today and for the last 20 minutes. Seaford came back at us and rallied well. But our win has capped off a great League campaign. The boys have been fantastic all year and captained well by James Halpin."

Lewes 1sts will now play in London League 3 South-East next season - a level to which they have bounced back immediately after relegation from the same League only a season ago.

Lewes: Hill, Warren, Williams, Nayler, Creed, Lowen, Dean, Stubbs, Tagg, Halpin (Capt), Feltham, Sharp, Tobin, Mills, Wade (Reps, all used: Wood, Hatch, Edwards).

Lewes 2nds rounded off a great day for the Club with a fine 34-17 home victory against Seaford 2nds, who had to concede 10 points from the start due to their inability to field a recognised front-row. Lewes' other points came from a try by Ian Irvine (converted by Josh Farr) and a try and conversion from Patrick O'Rourke.

When the post-match ceremonies were over, the Lewes players and supporters returned to their Clubhouse for the Annual Awards Dinner, the winners in each category being as follows:

1st XV Player Of The Year:
Alfie Hill

1st XV Most Improved Player Of The Year:
Billy Shiell

Clubmen Of The Year:
Rob Williams/Aidan Byrne

2nd XV Player Of The Year:
Bikram Singh

2nd XV Most Improved Player Of The Year:
Ray Moran

2nd XV Players' Player Of The Year:
Gerard Basson

Most Points Scored:
Nick Sharp

Women's XV Players Player:
Sophie Williams

Women's XV Most Improved Player Of The Year:
Nicola Minchell

Womens XV Most Points Scored:
Katie Wadeson

Womens XV Player Of The Year:
Rab Willis

Womens XV Clubman Of The Year:
Mandy Yau

Although this represents the end of the League season for Lewes, their rugby is not yet over, as they face Seaford - again! - but this time at home, on Saturday 7 May in the quarter-final of the Sussex Shield - a match preceded by their Annual Vice-President's Lunch.