10:44am Monday 26th March 2012
By Peter Upton
Warlingham normally thrive in the warm sunny weather but, despite an early brace of tries, they turned over too many balls and lost too many lineouts as they went down 29-22 to Tunbridge Wells.
With Tunbridge desperate to avoid relegation they had much more at stake and with great determination, clawed their way back into the game and deserved the points.
Warlingham started well with a clean break by centre Luke Davis taking play deep into the Wells half but a speculative pass went astray.
Winger Jon Osborne, always dangerous with the ball, skipped through the defence and lock Nick Ray took the play forward. Hooker Dan Street finished off the move with a try converted by Alex Skinner.
A quick similar move involving centre Ben Wimble and Osborne gave No 8 Mike Fair a clear run in for the second try, with Skinner adding the extra two points.
Warlingham seemed to be in control but a penalty miss gave Wells heart and when Warlingham coughed up possession Wells swung the ball quickly to their left wing who scored in the corner.
The conversion attempt failed but Wells had their tails up and only a try saving tackle from flanker Zac King kept the home side scoreless up to half time.
A second penalty miss by Warlingham failed to give them a platform and the teams turned round with just the two points between them.
King was yellow-carded for an infringement and, with a man down, Warlingham struggled.
A five metre scrum on their line was defended stoutly but Warlingham ran out of numbers to let the Wells centre in for their second, converted try.
Warlingham failed to secure several of their lineouts and the Wells outside half kicked cleverly to pen Warlingham down in their own 22.
Despite a break from Fair and some crunching tackles from Delderfield and Ray, Wells were getting more possession and territory.
Full back Joe McEvoy kicked a penalty for Warlingham but, after a clean lineout by Wells they rumbled over the line for their third try to level the scores and the try was converted from the touch line to give Wells the lead.
Wells then kicked a long penalty and the game was slipping away from the visitors.
However, after several phases of play Warlingham attacked with tenacity and when King and Osborne broke through the defence King scored in the corner to level the scores again.
Wells were not finished and a kick ahead from their centre looked to give them a good opportunity to score. Some obstruction from the Warlingham defence saw the referee award a penalty try in the dying minutes.
With time running out Warlingham attacked and from several rucks and mauls Dan Street was convinced he had touched down under the posts. When the referee took a look he adjudged the Street had been held up and a five metre scrum was the unfortunate result.
Wells defended well and, when the final whistle blew they deserved the win.
Warlingham came away with just the one point for being within seven points of the winning side but, after the game, head coach Tom Street said: "We are very disappointed not to come away with win, but Tunbridge Wells did well to come back from a 14 point deficit.
"There are areas of our own game we need to look at as we have a difficult run in to the end of the season."
Warlingham remain halfway in the league table and host promotion chasing Brighton next Saturday after their annual Golden Oldies lunch where 170 former players assemble to pass their wise eyes over the current teams.
Warlingham: Scutt, D Street, Abou-Zeid, Ray,J Delderfield, Murphy, King, Fair, Perkins, Wrightson, Osborne, Davis, Wimble, A Skinner, McEvoy Substitutes: Agate, B Freeman,Robson.
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